Evidence continues to accumulate that the Covid-19 pandemic is not only boosting contactless and online payments, but doing so in historically short order. Some 48% of small and medium-size merchants reported in mid-June that they had observed an increase in the number of consumers either using contactless payments or asking …

Yet another unwelcome effect of the Covid-19 pandemic is a wave of chargebacks. What can acquirers, merchants, and issuers do to limit the damage? An increasingly serious manifestation of the economic damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is chargebacks, and plenty of them. With the outbreak freezing the economy for …

We here at Digital Transactions have for the past few months been considering the impact the novel coronavirus is having on the payments business, along with the adjustments the business is making to contend with business lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, and social-distancing recommendations. Now the country is re-opening in many states …

Facing criticism for withholding as much as 30% of some small merchants’ payment volume, merchant processor and business software provider Square Inc. on Tuesday posted an explanation of its new reserve policy. “Out of our millions of sellers, fewer than 0.3% have reserves on their accounts, but given increased interest, …

Merchant processor Square Inc. said that as of June 10 its Square Capital service had facilitated more than $820 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans to 76,000 small businesses since April 29. PPP loans are part of the federal government’s stimulus program to combat the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.In …

Despite tentative signs of an economic recovery from the coronavirus-induced depression, some experts are forecasting a gloomy outlook for store closures as the year plays out and merchants struggle with debt loads and a consumer shift to e-commerce. At least 20,000, and as many as 25,000, stores will likely shut …

The economy is slowly thawing from its Covid-19 freeze-up, but many card-accepting merchants are struggling with more chargebacks stemming from canceled trips, non-delivery of goods, or other reasons. And some of them also are dealing with demands from their merchant acquirers for more cash to fund reserve accounts. Payments and …

The Federal Trade Commission this week announced a settlement with an independent sales organization that processed $80 million in payments for “My Online Business Education,” or MOBE, a business-coaching and investment opportunity the FTC deemed fraudulent and shut down in 2018. Under an order and permanent injunction in U.S. District Court …

Online trading of cryptocurrencies has become a hot market, and the recent online activity driven by Covid-19 fears has only added fuel to that trend. In response, the big merchant processor Worldpay, along with Forter Inc., a provider of fraud-prevention technology, on Wednesday introduced a service that will cover crypto …

ACI Worldwide Inc. said its real-time payments platform, UP Immediate Payments, has added application programming interfaces to ease integration with mobile wallets, e-commerce portals, bill-pay apps, social-media payments, and other applications.Payments provider Klarna AB said it has an agreement with musical-instrument maker Fender to provide a payment option offering four equal installments on …