Credit Cards

The global retail-payment networks Mastercard and Visa are on a tear, acquiring and investing in adjacent payment-opportunity space in networks that can leverage and reinforce their existing franchises.  Their traditional payment schemes are dominant worldwide and near indestructible. While for the foreseeable future they could grow on autopilot, to their …

E-commerce services provider BigCommerce Holdings Inc. filed a registration statement this week ahead of a possible IPO.In its latest report on small businesses using its SwipeSimple payment service during the Covid-19 pandemic, CardFlight Inc. said overall transaction counts decreased 9.2% in the week ending July 12 from the week before, but were still 14% …

Payment card usage in the U.S. might be taking a hit during the Covid-19 pandemic, but not the Zelle person-to-person payments service among Bank of America Corp.’s customer base. Charlotte, N.C.-based BofA reported Thursday that it had 11.3 million active Zelle users, including small businesses, in the second quarter, up 41% …

Three of the nation’s largest banks reported Tuesday that their credit card purchase volumes fell by more than 20% in the second quarter as the Covid-19 pandemic slammed the brakes on the economy, though things were better on the debit card side. New York City-based JPMorgan Chase & Co., the …

With the massive increase in e-commerce this year, and new merchants moving to an online model out of necessity, combating card-not-present fraud is incredibly important. EMV 3-D Secure 1.0 (or 3DS1) has been continually upgraded as technology and consumer habits changed; however, from its first iteration it has always had …

New data from a point-of-sale services provider show just how much of a boost the Covid-19 pandemic has given to contactless payments. New York City-based CardFlight Inc., a technology company serving more than 60,000 small businesses through its SwipeSimple service, says in its latest weekly report on payment trends since …

The U.S. subsidiary of failed German payment processor Wirecard AG is drawing strong interest from potential buyers, according to media reports. The Wall Street Journal also reported that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Wirecard AG played a critical role in an alleged $100 million bank-fraud conspiracy connected to an online marijuana marketplace.Splitit Payments Ltd., which enables …

Before being upended by the Covid-19 pandemic, the payment choices U.S. consumers made were fairly stable. The biggest changes from 2018 to 2019 were an upswing in online bill payments and continued slippage in cash usage, according to new findings from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Based on a …

A group of 16 European banks said they plan to launch a “truly European” unified payments system by 2022 that would be an alternative to Visa and Mastercard, Reuters reported.The slowdown in in-store shopping due to the Covid-19 pandemic has caused some stores to run out of coins; most recently big-box grocery chain …

Evidence continues to accumulate that the Covid-19 pandemic is not only boosting contactless and online payments, but doing so in historically short order. Some 48% of small and medium-size merchants reported in mid-June that they had observed an increase in the number of consumers either using contactless payments or asking …