Microsoft Corp. is adapting its Microsoft Pay wallet to allow users of Outlook to pay bills and invoices they receive in the email program. The new feature, announced Monday at a company-sponsored developer conference, will become available to “a limited number” of users of Outlook’s Web-based service “over the next …
Read More »A Disappointed Investor Sues Ripple, Alleging Its XRP Is a Security, Not a Digital Currency
Ripple Labs Inc. has notched a number of successes lately for its distributed-ledger technology, but now it finds its cryptocurrency, known as XRP, is caught up in a lawsuit that reflects a larger debate over whether such digital tokens constitute securities. Ryan Coffey, an investor who bought XRP in January …
Read More »The Same Old Problems Plague the ‘Pays’ As Adoption Levels Show ‘Signs of Slippage’
Ever since Apple Pay emerged in 2014, experts have scratched their heads over the general failure of contactless mobile wallets to catch on faster with U.S. consumers. Now comes research indicating how wallet sponsors might turn things around by focusing on what consumers are most looking for in wallet services …
Read More »Square Reports Advances With Larger Merchants And Double-Digit Growth in Key Metrics
Square Inc. reported a strong first quarter late Wednesday, but you wouldn’t know it on Wall Street, where its shares were trading down slightly Thursday morning at just over $47. It closed at $48.70 Wednesday. Despite double-digit increases year-over-year in gross payment volume and net and adjusted revenue, the San …
Read More »Beyond P2P: As Rival Venmo Moves In-Store, Zelle Eyes a Big Move on Disbursements
Since its official launch last June, Zelle has been all about carving out a healthy piece of the burgeoning person-to-person payments market for financial institutions. Now it’s promoting another service that leverages its network but could prove far more lucrative: disbursements. When companies, associations, or other organizations need to pay …
Read More »Eye on Blockchain: Ripple Keeps Making Waves; Litecoin Lands in Wirex’s Visa Debit Card
With digital-payments providers emerging all over the world to serve local and international consumers, the search is on for synchronized, standardized networks to transfer funds cross-border. Ripple, the San Francisco-based provider of distributed-ledger payments, says it has the answer, and late last week five payments services overseas signed on to …
Read More »How Square’s Deal for Weebly Sets the Stage for Expansion to Bigger Merchants
Since its founding nine years ago, Square Inc. has focused on simplified checkout options and software for small brick-and-mortar merchants. With its acquisition of Weebly Inc., announced late Thursday, San Francisco-based Square is not only staging a major expansion into e-commerce, it’s also laying the groundwork for a significant outreach …
Read More »A Surging Performance From P2P Services Helps Boost Results for PayPal’s First Quarter
The PayPal Holdings Inc. machine just keeps chugging. The company announced on Wednesday added momentum in the first quarter, driven in part by gains in consumer and merchant accounts, results for Venmo, its popular peer-to-peer payments app, and strong performance for One Touch, its streamlined checkout technology. Without offering details, …
Read More »Shift4 Is Embroiled in an Antitrust Suit Alleging It Shuts out Rival Restaurant Processors
The ongoing consolidation of companies focused on point-of-sale systems for restaurants gave rise on Tuesday to an antitrust suit that seeks to reverse one of the most recent mergers among payment processors. Payment Logistics Ltd., a San Diego-based payments provider, alleges in its complaint that Shift4 Payments LLC is using …
Read More »BitPay Targets Physical Stores for Cryptocurrency With a Refreshed Checkout App
Bitcoin is far from a mainstream payment method, but most merchants that accept the cryptocurrency are online sellers. On Monday, the Atlanta-based processor BitPay Inc. announced an update intended to bring Bitcoin and its recently hatched cousin, Bitcoin Cash, to more brick-and-mortar merchants. BitPay introduced its Checkout app, which works …
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