News

September, 2020

• 22 September

  How Consumers Struggling with Covid-19’s Impact Have Paid—Or Not Paid—Their Bills

  

  The impact of the economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic has affected payments of all sorts, but perhaps none so much as consumer bill payments. Indeed, some 56% of consumers said it was harder to pay bills because they’d lost their jobs or had sustained a reduction in income, …
• 22 September

  POS Credit To Grow 92% and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 9/22/20

  

  Online purchases using installment credit will total $680 billion globally in 2025, up 92% from $353 billion last year, projects Kaleido Intelligence.In related news, point-of-sale installment lender Laybuy launched a partner program to help smaller retailers offer the credit. More than 6,000 merchants offer Laybuy.MetaBank N.A., a unit of Meta Financial Group Inc., …
• 21 September

  Paya Expands Its Government Unit With an Acquisition of The Payment Group

  

  Payments provider Paya Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire The Payment Group (TPG), a provider of integrated payments to utilities and government. TPG’s software allows consumers to digitally pay their court and utility bills. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in October, were not disclosed. As …
• 21 September

  Visa SMB Support Campaign Begins and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 9/21/20

  

  As small businesses prepare for the holiday shopping season in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Visa Inc. announced it is launching programs and resources to support their efforts, including so-called Visa Street Teams that visit stores to provide point-of-sale materials to support contactless payments.In related news, Visa said 60% of U.S. …
• 18 September

  Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go Pulls Up at the Fuel Pump

  

  Sam’s Club, the warehouse-retail arm of Walmart Inc., is bringing its Scan & Go self-checkout technology to more than 500 Sam’s Club fuel stations. Called Scan & Go Fuel, the mobile-payment service will enable consumers to make contactless payments using the Sam’s Club app at 518 Sam’s Club locations by …
• 18 September

  EVO’s Turn to Visa Direct Casts a Spotlight on the Potential for Real-Time Merchant Settlement

  

  Real-time payment flows are coming to processor settlements with merchants as Visa Inc. enlarges the market for its Visa Direct push-payment service. The latest development emerged this week with EVO Payments Inc.’s launch of EVO Direct Deposit, a service that relies on Visa Direct to credit U.S. merchant accounts. The …
• 18 September

  Affirms Cements $500 Million Funding Round and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 9/18/20

  

  Point-of-sale credit provider Affirm Inc. said it raised $500 million in a series G funding round. Lead investors were GIC and Durable Capital Partners LP. Affirm also introduced an interest-free biweekly payment product for transactions of as little as $50. It also announced that NutriBullet, a small-appliance maker, offers Affirm as a payment …
• 17 September

  BuyLottoNow Offers Decoupled Debit To Entice Merchants

  

  Convenience-store operators wanting another way to accept payments for lottery games have a decoupled-debit option with the launch of the BuyLottoNow program. The program, provided by iVertical Payment Network LLC, Boca Raton, Fla., charges no fees to merchants, but charges consumers 30 cents per transaction. Consumers enroll a checking account …
• 17 September

  The PureWrist Go Bracelet Launches With Contactless EMV And Prepaid Funding Capability

  

  PureWrist, a contactless-transaction technology provider, on Thursday debuted PureWrist Go, a reloadable flexible bracelet with an embedded EMV chip that allows consumers to make prepaid contactless transactions. PureWrist GO, which retails for $25, plus the amount preloaded on to device, is the flagship product on the PureWrist platform. New York …
• 16 September

  VSoft Launches Bread, the Latest Entry in the Real-Time Payments Sweepstakes

  

  VSoft Corp., a provider of digital-banking and payment solutions to financial institutions, on Wednesday launched the Bread network, a peer-to-peer, consumer-to-business, business-to-consumer, and business-to-business payment network.  Bread enables real-time payments between financial institutions within its network. Money sent and money received is kept within the users’ respective financial-institution accounts, as …