Issuing/Originating

Unlike many fintech startups, Walmart’s Inc.’s new financial company is expected to be a formidable player right out of the gate. The retail giant unveiled plans late Monday to partner with Ribbit Capital to create a fintech that will provide what Walmart describes as “modern, innovative, and affordable financial solutions.” …

Wells River Bank has agreed to join the Real Time Payments network operated by The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC. The bank will connect to the network through the Shazam EFT network’s Shazam Pay faster-payments gateway.Payments provider Lightspeed POS Inc. launched its Lightspeed Supplier Network, a platform aimed at North American merchants to …

As part a strategy to widen its market for banking solutions, Green Dot Corp. Wednesday launched GO2bank, a mobile-banking application intended to help the 7.1 million unbanked households in the United States manage their finances.  Green Dot says it is launching the program as a way to eliminate the costly …

PayPal Holdings Inc. may have prevailed in its lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over the CFPB’s rules pertaining to prepaid cards and digital wallets, but the overarching legal battle is likely to continue. The ruling, which was handed down Dec. 30 by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon and …

Amara’s Law, coined by Stanford computer scientist Roy Amara, says we tend to overestimate the impact of a new technology in the short run, but underestimate it in the long run. So it was with the Internet and mobile phones. So it’s likely to be with digital fiat currencies.  Since …

In the week before and the week of Christmas, consumers markedly increased their use of mobile wallets, with mobile wallets loaded with a debit card increasing 79.2% from the same weeks a year ago, according to the Tracking Transaction Trends report from PSCU, a credit union service organization. Use of mobile …

Challenger bank Current said it is the first fintech in the country to receive the second round of federal stimulus payments and is making the funds available to members immediately. The stimulus bill, which provides for $600 payments to individuals, was approved by Congress Dec. 21 and signed by President Donald Trump …

Nacha, the automated clearing house rules maker, and its Payments Innovation Alliance, a group of corporations, third-party processors, fintechs, and financial institutions, expanded the ACH Quick Start Tool, which helps smaller businesses learn about the ACH.Also, Nacha launched the Faster Payments Project Team to help organizations learn about faster payments and its capabilities.Starting Jan. …

Little by little and step by step, merchants have been taking tighter control over their payments businesses. No longer merely the endpoint in a cardholder’s lifecycle, merchants are leveraging fintech in ways not possible just a few short years ago. This is why we’re seeing the big fintech-centric acquirers like …

The payments industry operates on a continuum of varying degrees of politicization, imposed and self-imposed. For maximizing value, less is better. Increased politicization will challenge the payments industry in 2021. U.S. regulators have already exercised enormous discretionary power over payments, sometimes lawlessly. Hatched by the Department of Justice in 2013, …