News

February, 2021

• 12 February

  Cryptocurrency Begins Its Move Up From the Minor Leagues for Mastercard And Visa

  

  The two big card networks have made no bones about their interest in supporting cryptocurrency transactions, and this week both made big moves in that direction. The bigger move came from Mastercard Inc., which on Wednesday announced its intention to launch later this year the ability to send and receive …
• 12 February

  BNPL Specialist Affirm Adds 52% More Customers and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/12/21

  

  Affirm Inc. said it had 4.5 million active customers in its fiscal 2021 second quarter ended Dec. 31, a 52% increase from the second quarter of fiscal 2020.Payments provider Repay Holdings Corp. said an integration with PN3 Solutions, a software provider for business-to-business payment automation, will allow PN3’s clients to complete payments to …
• 11 February

  Mogo Buys A Piece of Cryptocurrency Trading Platform Coinsquare

  

  Payments-technology provider Mogo Inc. is initially acquiring about 20% of Coinsquare, a Canadian cryptocurrency-trading platform, for US$44.4 million, with an option to purchase another 20% in the future. Mogo’s first option to increase its investment in Coinsquare, which acts as the trading platform for MogoCrypto, which Mogo launched in 2018, …
• 11 February

  Despite a Tough Year, Digital Transfers Shone Brightly for Western Union

  

  Hampered early on by Covid-19, The Western Union Co. late Wednesday said its growing digital-transfer business helped buoy its results for the fourth quarter and the full year. Overall, revenue from digital transfers, including activity on Westernunion.com, grew 36% in the fourth quarter year-over-year and accounted for just over one-fifth …
• 11 February

  Uplift Signs Travel BNPL Clients and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/11/21

  

  Buy now, pay later specialist Uplift Inc. said it signed new travel brands and experienced a 72% growth in monthly transaction revenue in the 2020 fourth quarter. New clients coming online in the second quarter include Alaska Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Virgin Voyages, and Air Canada Vacations.ACI Worldwide Inc. said it and Gilbarco Veeder-Root, …
• 10 February

  How OLB Group Hopes to Win Over Merchants for Cryptocurrency Acceptance

  

  Betting that consumer demand to use cryptocurrency as a payment vehicle will rise over the long term, payments provider The OLB Group Inc. announced Wednesday that its SecurePay payment gateway will support the acceptance of Bitcoin and other digital currencies at the point of sale regardless of the merchant platform. …
• 10 February

  Nonbanks Find Consumer Favor and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/10/21

  

  As consumers increasingly turn to fintechs rather than banks, money decisions and payments share are shifting away from traditional financial institutions, according to a study from data-analytics firm Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO). Some 34% of consumers have at least one account with, or conduct financial activity with, a nonbank provider, while …
• 9 February

  Fiserv Looks to Units Like Clover And Carat to Help Bend Its Growth Trajectory Upward

  Like many of its rivals, Fiserv Inc. is looking for ways to prosper as hope begins to rise for a recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged much of the world. Tuesday afternoon, the Brookfield, Wis.-based payments provider revealed a promising report card for its fourth-quarter performance, with high-flying …
• 9 February

  Gift Card Fraud And Credential Stuffing Led the Charge in Fourth-Quarter Fraud Attacks

  

  Gift card fraud and credential stuffing, a technique in which criminals use stolen account credentials to gain access to legitimate user accounts, ran rampant during the fourth quarter of 2020, according to research by Arkose Labs, a San Francisco-based provider of fraud-prevention technology. Criminals launched 3.6 million attacks on gift …
• 9 February

  With Worldpay Firmly Onboard, FIS Sees Further M&A as ‘an Important Pillar’ in Its Strategy

  

  Top management at FIS Inc. made it plain Tuesday morning that growth through further acquisitions is a key priority only about 18 months after the company completed its massive buyout of the merchant processor Worldpay. But while the Jacksonville, Fla.-based company still keeps its powder dry for M&A, executives on …