U.S. payments networks continue to cultivate their connections to what is for them a potentially massive market in China. In the latest development, Leshua Technology announced early Friday it will support acquiring for American Express Co.’s joint venture in China. AmEx last year became the first foreign payments company to win …
Read More »Biometric ID Checks Swell as Digital Payments Grow and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 9/3/21
Accelerated adoption of digital payments during the pandemic helped drive up biometric identity checks by a factor of 20 for ComplyCube in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2020, said the company, which specializes in anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer compliance.Park Place Payments said it signed with acquirer Payroc …
Read More »The United Kingdom’s Zilch Becomes the Latest Entrant in the Hotly Contested U.S. BNPL Market
Zilch Technology Ltd. is preparing to become the latest entrant in the U.S. buy now, pay later market. The move hinges on the London-based company’s acquisition of San Francisco-based debt-funding platform Neptune Financial & Management Services LLC (NepFin), a deal Zilch announced on Thursday. The terms were not disclosed. The …
Read More »Walgreens Moves into Banking With Its Scarlet Bank Account And Debit Card Debut
Giant pharmacy chain Walgreen Co. is getting into the banking and debit card business with the launch of Scarlet. Announced Thursday, Scarlet is a Mastercard-branded debit card issued by MetaBank. InComm Payments provides the system for the account. Scarlet works like most bank accounts and is designed to help accountholders …
Read More »Subscription Fees Are up 15% and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 9/2/21
U.S. consumers are spending $273 per month on subscription services on average, up 15% from the average in 2018, yet they estimate they are spending less, according to a poll from consulting firm West Monroe.Payments provider Nuvei Corp. completed its $250-million cash acquisition of SimplexCC Ltd., a cryptocurrency gateway that links exchanges, brokers, wallets, …
Read More »Mercari Picks Zip’s BNPL Option and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 9/1/21
Mercari, an online marketplace for second-hand goods, said consumers can use buy now, pay later services from Zip Co., formerly Quadpay, on its Web site.Buy now, pay later specialist Uplift Inc. said consumers who book with Sixthman, a music-festival organizer on cruise ships, can pay for their tickets in monthly installments. Sixthman is …
Read More »Astra Partners With Plaid to Make It Easier for Developers to Add Automated Transfers
As part of its strategy to remove friction from automated bank transfers, Astra Inc., a provider of bank-to-bank transfer technology, is partnering with open-banking platform provider Plaid Inc. The partnership will make it easier for software developers to embed automated bank transfers into their applications by enabling them to use …
Read More »Apple, Google Face Big App Store Change and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 8/31/21
Apple Inc.’s App Store and the Google Play store will have to open their payments services to competing providers for in-app purchases in South Korea if a recently passed bill becomes law, reported The Wall Street Journal, which also said the president’s party endorsed the legislation. Apple, in particular, has been the …
Read More »BNPL Lands a Whale As Affirm Adds Amazon for Installment Payments
Buy now, pay later specialist Affirm Inc. late Friday announced it had clinched the e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. as a client, securing a source of enormous volume and sending its stock soaring Monday morning. The news follows the enablement in May of Affirm’s service for hundreds of thousands of U.S. merchants …
Read More »Visa Adopts Contactless Transit Incentive and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 8/30/21
Visa Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. said they will donate a dime to New York Cares through the month of September, up to a limit of $250,000, for each tap riders perform with a Chase Visa contactless card on subways or buses operated by New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority.VPay, …
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