The four global U.S.-based payment card networks unveiled their joint e-commerce buy button this week, which means merchants, merchant acquirers, and processors can look forward to—or dread—implementing it. Visa Inc. chairman and chief executive Alfred F. Kelly Jr. predicted Thursday they shouldn’t have too many problems. The button is based …
Read More »Zelle Posted $49 Billion in Payment Volume for the Third Quarter
Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Early Warning said Zelle’s volume totaled $49 billion, up 58% from 2018’s third quarter. Over the same time, transactions increased 73% to 196 million. Dollar volume on the Zelle peer-to-peer payments service increased more than 50% year-over-year in the third quarter while the transaction count jumped even more, …
Read More »Eye on Acquisitions: Mastercard Buying Loyalty Platform Provider; Visa Completes Rambus Deal
The bank card networks lengthened their 2019 streak of merger-and-acquisition activity on Tuesday with Mastercard Inc. announcing it has a deal to acquire marketing software developer SessionM and Visa Inc. reporting it completed its acquisition of Rambus Inc.’s token services and ticketing businesses. Mastercard said the addition of SessionM will enhance …
Read More »Mastercard’s Bill Pay Exchange Service Expands
Mastercard Inc. says a number of new partners have signed on to use or test its Mastercard Bill Pay Exchange platform, including Consolidated Edison Co. of New York (ConEd), one of the nation’s largest utilities. Unveiled a year ago, Bill Pay Exchange enables consumers using their bank or credit union’s online …
Read More »UPDATED: Herbert Out as CEO of USA Technologies; Interim Leader Appointed
With a proxy fight looming, vending-machine payments provider USA Technologies Inc. announced late Thursday that chief executive Stephen P. Herbert has resigned. Herbert, a former Pepsi-Cola executive, spent 23 years with Malvern, Pa.-based USAT, including eight as CEO. USAT’s board of directors named one of its members, Donald W. Layden …
Read More »Rental Payments Dominate Zelle Volume; Are Transaction Limits a Hindrance?
Rental payments are the top use case by far on the Zelle person-to-person payments network, according to the chief executive of Zelle provider Early Warning Services LLC. “From an end-user use-case perspective, far and away the No. 1 use case for Zelle right now is actually a rent payment,” Albert …
Read More »The Fed Wants To Get FedNow Into Market Quickly, But Hasn’t Changed Its Rollout Schedule
Two senior Federal Reserve officials said Tuesday they are committed to rolling out the proposed FedNow real-time payments service as quickly as possible, but they didn’t say the original schedule calling for a launch in 2023 or even 2024 will be shortened. “We will be making every effort, I think, to …
Read More »UPDATED: Leading Investor Decries ‘Value-Destructive Conduct’ at USA Technologies, Pushes for Change
The honeymoon is over between vending-machine payments provider USA Technologies Inc. and its largest investor, which on Monday accused the company’s board of directors of “value-destructive conduct” and blasted its top brass for “lack of management qualifications or accountability.” The surly announcement by New York City-based hedge fund Hudson Executive …
Read More »The Tires Begin To Roll Off Libra as Visa, Mastercard, eBay, and Stripe Withdraw
Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., merchant processor Stripe Inc. and online marketplace eBay Inc. said Friday afternoon they will not join the Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency project. The defections came a week after PayPal Holdings Inc. became the first of the Libra Association’s 28 tentative members to withdraw in the face of …
Read More »Payments Deals Dominate 2019’s Fintech M&A
Payments companies drove merger-and-acquisition activity in the financial-technology sector in 2019’s first nine months, according to a new analysis. Payments firms were involved in four of the top 10 deals tracked by New York City-based investment bank Berkery Noyes Securities LLC. The value of the payments mergers totaled $94.1 billion, …
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