Payment card networks have for years eyed the broad market for small-business payments, which are still largely executed with paper checks. On Thursday, Mastercard Inc. and payables-automation company AvidXchange Inc. said they will attack that paper mountain with The Mastercard B2B Hub, which will be distributed to small- and mid-size …
Read More »How to Get Past ‘No’
By Kevin Woodward A willingness to listen, knowledge of the industry and of the merchant, and preparation are key to skirting a merchant’s rebuff reflex. It’s a universal sales-agent experience. The rebuff, deflection, or outright rejection from a merchant who, in her mind, is yet again hearing a sales rep …
Read More »As Sellers Adopt EMV And Apple Pay, Square Pushes Its EMV/Contactless Reader
With chip cards and contactless mobile transactions gradually working their way into more merchant checkouts, Square Inc. is pairing a couple of tried-and-true offers to push an 18-month-old card reader that handles both EMV and Apple Pay. In the latest wave of a promotional campaign that was announced in January, Square earlier …
Read More »Banks And Non-Banks Play to Their Strengths As They Eye a $1.2 Trillion P2P Market
Financial institutions and third-party providers of digital person-to-person payments may have the same goal—ubiquity of service and adoption—but they’ll have to take different paths to get there, according to “Digital Person-to-Person Payments in the U.S.: The Competitive Landscape,” a report released last week by the Aite Group LLC. The P2P …
Read More »COMMENTARY: For Health-Care Providers, the Check Is Still in the Mail
While the benefits of electronic transactions for health-care payments—reduced operating costs, efficient processing, enhanced reliability, and strengthened security—are widely acknowledged, the health-care industry has faced many challenges keeping pace with standard electronic-payment adoption rates. And the problem will only get worse unless payment-solution providers expand their offerings to support the …
Read More »Visa Gets a Lot of Likes, But the Card Brands as a Group Don’t Get Much Love
Consumers may like the leading payment brands, especially Visa, but they don’t connect with them on an emotional level, according to new research findings from payments-industry consulting firm The Strawhecker Group. Asked if they “have any emotional connection” to any of the brands, some 77% of TSG’s respondents said no. …
Read More »Speedpass+ Adds Ford In-Car Fuel Payments and Apple Watch Compatibility
Paying for fuel at an Exxon Mobil Corp. gas station just got even easier. That is, for those who use the ExxonMobil Speedpass+ mobile app and drive a Ford vehicle with SYNC3 technology or use Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch. Speedpass+, which also is available for Android devices and offers Samsung …
Read More »Fleetcor To Expand Its B2B Payment Footprint With Pending Cambridge Acquisition
Fleetcor Technologies Inc., a big provider of fleet-fueling, payroll payments, and gift card services, said it has a definitive agreement to acquire Cambridge Global Payments, a Toronto-based processor of cross-border business-to-business payments that handles $20 billion annually in vendor and employee payments for 13,000 companies. The purchase price is C$900 …
Read More »In-Car Payments Pioneer Honda Broadens Its Focus Beyond Autos With a New R&D Unit
In-car payments may be taking yet another step forward, along with related connected-car innovations. American Honda Motor Co. Inc. on Thursday said it is reorganizing its innovation arm, Honda Silicon Valley Lab, as a new company called Honda R&D Innovations Inc. The new entity has been created specifically to “expand …
Read More »TSYS’s Netspend Unit To Pay $53 Million As Part of FTC Settlement
Netspend, the prepaid card unit of processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), will pay $53 million as part of a settlement it reached with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations concerning how it handled some marketing materials. The settlement, announced Friday, calls for Netspend to set aside $40 million to …
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