U.S. investment managers have grown bullish about Bitcoin’s prospects despite recent events that have roiled digital-currency markets, research released Wednesday indicates. Feeding the renewed optimism are prospects for “improved regulation” and expectations of a “recovery in valuations” for Bitcoin, according to the research, in which 30 major investment managers were …
Read More »PayPal Opens Venmo to Teenage Children of PayPal Users
PayPal Holdings Inc. announced early Monday it is launching a version of its Venmo peer-to-peer payment service tailored for teenagers. With the new program, parents holding a Venmo account can open one for a child aged 13 to 17 that will include a Mastercard debit card. Parents can exercise control …
Read More »Eye on Bitcoin: Marathon, Brink Partner To Raise Money for Bitcoin Developers; Jack Dorsey Invests in Azteco
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc., a digital-asset company that supports the Bitcoin ecosystem, is teaming up with Brink Technology to raise $1 million to support Bitcoin Core developers that maintain the Bitcoin protocol. Brink Technology works to strengthen the Bitcoin protocol and network. The Bitcoin protocol enables Bitcoin to function as …
Read More »ACI Completes FedNow Certification And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 5/16/23
Payments provider ACI Worldwide Inc. said it has completed testing and certification necessary to participate in the Federal Reserve’s FedNow real-time payment service, set to launch in July. Identity-verification specialist Veriff said it will provide its services through processor MassPay’s payments-orchestration platform. Warning of more fraud as peer-to-peer and real-time payments gain volume, technology firm ComplyAdvantage launched Fraud Detection, which …
Read More »As FedNow Gears up for Launch, Processors Ready Smaller Clients
Jack Henry & Associates Inc., one of the earliest participants in the Federal Reserve’s nascent FedNow real-time payments platform, said early Monday it is “operationally ready” to support the service when it launches commercially in July. The Monett, Mo.-based processor said more than 20 client institutions are set to connect …
Read More »PayPal Makes Unbranded Checkout a ‘Strategic Imperative’ As Its CEO Prepares to Retire
PayPal has been known for some time as a major alternative for checkout online, but now the company is making it plain it’s putting considerable resources behind checkouts where its services function entirely in the background. So-called unbranded checkout, led by the company’s Braintree processing platform along with a relatively …
Read More »Block Nears $5 Billion in Revenue
Buoyed by Cash App, services, and a move up market Block Inc., parent of Square and Afterpay, generated nearly $5 billion in first-quarter revenue, a 25% increase from $4 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Its transaction-based revenue of $1.42 billion was a 15% increase from $1.29 billion …
Read More »Western Union Views Visa+ as Complement
The Western Union Co. says its decision to join the early set of providers in Visa Inc.’s interoperable peer-to-peer payments service called Visa+ reflects its business. Visa+ allows users to move payments between rival peer-to-peer payments networks. The pilot, set to launch later this year, will begin with transfers between …
Read More »Amazon’s Cobranded Card Revenue up And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/28/23
Amazon.com Inc. reported first-quarter revenue from “other sources” of $1.03 billion, up 55% year-over-year. The “other” category includes revenue from the massive online retailer’s cobranded credit cards. Total revenue from products and services for the quarter was $127.4 billion, up 9.5% year-over-year. Law firm BakerHostetler released its 2023 Data Security Incident Response …
Read More »As FedNow Gears up for Its July Launch, Specific Applications Beckon, Including Payroll
The official launch of FedNow as a commercial service is set for July, but already the nation’s banking regulator, along with observers, have seen a pattern in where initial participants have been using the real-time payments service. “We’re starting to see more activity around business-to-consumer [payments], related to payroll front …
Read More »