Credit Cards

A trend toward a near-total collapse in travel-and-entertainment spending helped drive down overall first-quarter card volume and discount revenue for American Express Co., the company reported Friday. “March was a very difficult month,” Stephen Squeri, AmEx’s chairman and chief executive, told stock analysts during a morning conference call. As with …

Independent sales organization Electronic Merchant Systems said it is working with Womply, a software and data-services provider for small businesses, to help merchants find lenders offering quick access to loan applications through the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, a Covid-19 relief effort.For the first time, ransomware incidents overtook payment card data when comparing the …

Discover cardholders might not jet around the country like many American Express cardholders do, but it’s still telling that Discover’s travel spending volume has plunged 99% this month as governmental stay-at-home orders and business closures to control the Covid-19 pandemic chill the economy. The near grounding of travel spending was …

Payroc LLC said it acquired Gateway Payments LLC, an independent sales organization with merchants primarily along the Gulf of Mexico coast. Terms were not disclosed.Weave Communications Inc., a provider of payments and other services for small businesses, said its Weave Lite tool set will be offered free for 90 days. Weave …

American Express Co. launched “Stand for Small,” a platform of more than 40 companies who have agreed to lend expertise to small businesses impacted by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.The World Bank predicted in a new report that global remittances will fall by about 20% this year because of the economic crisis …

The nation’s largest issuer of store cards sounded a note of optimism Tuesday as the Covid-19 crisis continued to ravage consumer spending. “Believe it or not, there are deals in the pipeline [with merchants],” said Margaret Keane, chief executive of Synchrony Financial. “We’re not sitting back. We’re highly engaged.” Keane …

Nearly empty commercial airline flights mean a lot less tickets being purchased. This result of efforts to tamp down the Covid-19 infection packs a wallop for the travel industry. But, the time can be put to use taking care of formerly delayed payment projects and preparing for the resumption of …

If the first quarter of the year is any indication, person-to-person payments might be getting a big lift as stay-at-home consumers look for safe ways to pay in the face of the Covid-19 outbreak. Bank of America Corp. reported Wednesday transactions on its Zelle platform shot up 76% compared to …

U.S. Bancorp’s big payments operation that includes merchant acquirer Elavon Inc. is usually a reliable revenue generator, but the bank-holding company’s exposure to the big downturn in travel-and-entertainment and business spending because of the Covid-19 pandemic became evident in the first quarter. Merchant payment volume declined 4.8% to $104.7 billion …

JPMorgan Chase & Co., parent company of the nation’s biggest bank-owned merchant acquirer, managed to pull off a 5% increase in processing volume in the first quarter despite the restrictions on economic activity that took force in many states in the second half of March to control the Covid-19 pandemic. …