News

January, 2025

• 1 January

  Payments as a growth strategy – how ISVs can optimize revenue potential with embedded finance

  

   Steven Velasquez, Senior Vice President and Head of Partner Business Development – U.S. Bank | Elavon  As the worlds of technology and financial services converge, the pace of innovation is increasing exponentially. The advent of AI, cloud-based, headless architecture, and ‘everything-as-a-service’ presents a challenge to ISVs looking to adapt to …

December, 2024

• 31 December

  WhatsAppPay Rolls Out in India and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/31/24

  

  Meta Platform’s WhatsApp payments service has been permitted by the National Payments Corp. of India, a regulatory body, to roll out WhatsApp Pay to its entire user base of 500 million in that country. Meta formerly was known as Facebook. GasBuddy, which offers a payments card featuring discounts on gasoline, forecasts the …
• 30 December

  iWallet’s Voice-Based AI Ordering and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/30/24

  

  A startup called iWallet announced technology it says supports voice-based ordering using artificial intelligence, while also being compliant with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard. Bitget Wallet, a cryptocurrency platform, said it has surpassed 60 million users globally, achieving a 300% growth rate in user count for 2024. Janover Inc., a commercial …
• 27 December

  Optimizing payments and financial services to exceed consumer expectations and maximize revenue

  

  Steven Velasquez, Senior Vice President and Head of Partner Business Development – Elavon, Inc. As payments technology innovation continues to evolve exponentially, today’s consumers expect a seamless, connected, and personalized buying experience. Buyers don’t care about payments per se, but the overall shopping experience. ISOs and ISVs that understand this …
• 27 December

  BNPL To Reach $111.2 Billion in Volume by 2029 and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/27/24

  

  The worldwide market for buy now, pay later will grow to a volume of $112.36 billion by 2029, up from $32.89 billion in 2023, representing a compound annual growth rate of 22.5%, according to the “Buy Now Pay Later Platform Market” report from Research and Markets. Challenges the market faces include regulatory …
• 26 December

  FinCEN BOI Back on and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/26/24

  

  The FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Information mandate is back in force with a recent court decision. That rule, part of the Corporate Transparency Act passed in 2024,had required businesses to file a Beneficial Ownership Information report by Jan. 1, which was delayed earlier in December but now makes these reports due Jan. 13. Businesses formed …
• 24 December

  Snapchat’s Blackhawk Gift Card Plan and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/24/24

  

  Blackhawk Network will offer physical gift cards to users of Snapchat’s subscription service, Snapchat+. Snapchat is a messaging platform. The digital-payments platform Wirex has added two stablecoins, VNX Euro and VNX Swiss Franc, allowing users to spend the currency directly through their WIrex cards. Payments via QR codes will “shift from one niche …
• 24 December

  Merchants Hit Back at a Banking Group’s Request That the Fed Hold off on Reducing a Debit Interchange Cap

  

  The Merchants Payments Coalition fired back late Monday at a request last week from the American Bankers Association that the Federal Reserve not act on a proposal to lower a longstanding limit on the interchange banks can earn on debit card transactions.  In a letter to the Fed, the MPC …
• 23 December

  AI, Interchange, And Open Finance Are the Top Prospective 2025 Payments Trends

  

  The outlook for payments in 2025 will be rife with open finance, instant payments, multi-rail payments, interchange questions, and the increasing use of artificial intelligence, observers suggest. The top three payments trends next year will be open finance, instant payments adoption, and point-of-sale innovations, says Capgemini Research Institute in its …
• 23 December

  An Injunction Against Illinois’s Interchange Act Leaves Both Sides Claiming Victory

  

  United States District Court Judge Virginia Kendell granted a preliminary injunction late Friday that provides banks some relief from the pending Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, but also gives merchants reason to cheer. Kendell, who is overseeing a lawsuit filed against the IIFPA, ruled the injunction applies only to financial …