Thursday , April 23, 2026

Credit Cards

Zelle Users at BofA Defy the Pandemic Gravity

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% …

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Big Banks See Credit Card Purchases Plunge by More Than 20% in the Second Quarter

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 …

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COMMENTARY: How 3-D Secure 2.0 Will Change the Payments Industry

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 …

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Contactless Transactions at Small Businesses Have More Than Doubled Since March

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 …

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Wirecard’s U.S. Unit Draws Interest and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/9/20

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 …

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Will Consumers’ Payment Habits Return to Their Pre-Covid-19 Patterns?

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 …

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European Banks Plan Payment Network and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/2/20

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 …

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How the Pandemic Has Hastened Small Merchants’ Conversion to Contactless And Online Channels

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 …

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European Commission Report Details Wealth Redistribution From Interchange Regulation

A new European Commission report shows how interchange regulation has lowered merchants’ payment card acceptance costs and taken more than $3 billion a year from card issuers’ top lines. The EC, the executive arm of the Brussels-based European Union, implemented its so-called Interchange Fee Regulation in 2015 and 2016. The …

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Some E-Commerce Categories Return to Growth While Small Business Sales Continue Double-Digit Rise

While e-commerce sales overall have ballooned for many merchants since the March 11 declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic, health-and-beauty and business supplies generally did not. Until last week. Online business supplies sales were up 21% and health-and-beauty sales were up 20% for the week of June 16-22, reports the Signifyd …

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Digital Transactions