Point-of-sale

April, 2020

• 24 April

  A Plunge in T&E Spending Hits AmEx As It Copes With the Pandemic’s Worldwide Impact

  

  A trend toward a near-total collapse in travel-and-entertainment spending helped drive down overall first-quarter card volume and discount revenue for American Express Co., the company reported Friday. “March was a very difficult month,” Stephen Squeri, AmEx’s chairman and chief executive, told stock analysts during a morning conference call. As with …
• 23 April

  Led by a Near Grounding of Travel Spending, Discover’s Volume Is Off 29% in April

  

  Discover cardholders might not jet around the country like many American Express cardholders do, but it’s still telling that Discover’s travel spending volume has plunged 99% this month as governmental stay-at-home orders and business closures to control the Covid-19 pandemic chill the economy. The near grounding of travel spending was …
• 23 April

  Eye on Merchants: Revel Adds an Online-Ordering Tool; Velocity And Womply Prep for PPP’s Second Wave

  

  Many payments providers are doing what they can to help merchants. Revel Systems Inc. launched a standalone version of its online-ordering tool and Velocity Merchant Services is working with Womply to help businesses navigate the Paycheck Protection Program. Called Revel Go, the tool from Atlanta-based Revel can be added to …
• 22 April

  AmEx Launches ‘Stand for Small’ Group and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/22/20

  

  American Express Co. launched “Stand for Small,” a platform of more than 40 companies who have agreed to lend expertise to small businesses impacted by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.The World Bank predicted in a new report that global remittances will fall by about 20% this year because of the economic crisis …
• 21 April

  Synchrony Sounds Notes of Cautious Optimism As the Pandemic Takes Its Toll

  

  The nation’s largest issuer of store cards sounded a note of optimism Tuesday as the Covid-19 crisis continued to ravage consumer spending. “Believe it or not, there are deals in the pipeline [with merchants],” said Margaret Keane, chief executive of Synchrony Financial. “We’re not sitting back. We’re highly engaged.” Keane …
• 21 April

  Coinqvest Debuts Crypto Processing Service and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/21/20

  

  Coinqvest launched its enterprise cryptocurrency processing platform. With it, merchants can be paid online in cryptocurrencies and convert them into traditional currencies.The New York City Department of Transportation announced two apps can be used to pay for parking at more than 80,000 metered spots. In addition to the ParkNYC app, which …
• 17 April

  FreedomPay Adds Google Pay Support and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/17/20

  

  Payments provider FreedomPay has added support for Google Pay, enabling Google Pay users to make e-commerce payments in Android apps and in Web browsers. This can be done on a merchant’s Web site regardless of browser or operating system or within an Android app, with FreedomPay securely integrating to the Google Payments …
• 16 April

  Moderation in Sales Trends Emerges in E-Commerce and Among Small Businesses

  

  Two reports analyzing sales at e-commerce merchants and small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic indicate moderation in some categories may be happening. Many categories among e-commerce merchants moved a few percentage points for the week of April 7-13, according to the Covid-19 Weekly Pulse Report for E-commerce from San Jose, …
• 16 April

  Stripe Raises $600 Million and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/16/20

  

  Saying the Covid-19 pandemic “is pushing the economy online,” e-commerce payment processor Stripe Inc. announced it has raised another $600 million through an extension of its Series G funding round. Stripe said it will use the funding “to step up product development, global expansion, and strategic initiatives.”Payments provider Clearent launched Clearent EDU, a free …
• 14 April

  Chase’s Merchant Volume Rose 5% Despite a ‘Tale of Two Cities’ First Quarter

  

  JPMorgan Chase & Co., parent company of the nation’s biggest bank-owned merchant acquirer, managed to pull off a 5% increase in processing volume in the first quarter despite the restrictions on economic activity that took force in many states in the second half of March to control the Covid-19 pandemic. …