Credit Card Use Increases and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/3/19

Sixty-two percent of U.S. consumers used a credit card in 2018, up from 60% in 2017, finds a report from Mercator Advisory Group
Bestpass Inc., a provider of toll-management services for commercial fleets, said it finished 2018 with 500,000 active transponders in its network of almost 6,000 clients.
The fastest way to solve income inequality is for the Federal Reserve to build a real-time payments system, the Brookings Institute argues, pointing to fees and penalties low-income people incur with check cashers, payday lenders, and bank overdrafts.
A dozen companies have confirmed they are using or plan to use the xRapid cross-border payment service offered by Ripple Labs and its XRP cryptocurrency.
Proxibid, an online auction platform, announced it has acquired Wavebid, a provider of auction-management software. Terms were not disclosed.

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