Sunday , November 3, 2024

John Stewart

Starting as an editor on Bank Network News at Faulkner & Gray, John ultimately played a key role in starting, editing, and publishing many of F&G's flagship publications, including Credit Card Management, Card Technology, Card Marketing, and Collections & Credit Risk. Before co-founding Boland Hill Media, John was a group publisher at Thomson Media responsible for a $10 million division embracing magazines, newsletters, and Web sites.

M&A Is Unpredictable, But Deals Are Emerging As CEOs Plan for Economies of Scale

Payments has always been an acquisitive business, as economies of scale loom large for CEOs and CFOs and buying that scale can often look cheaper and quicker than building it over time. But so far, activity in 2024 is mapping to what was seen last year—which is to say, slow. …

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How Shift4’s CEO Looks to Build Shift4 Into ‘the SpaceX of Payments’

Having finished what its chief executive called “a very busy quarter,” the major processor Shift4 Payments Inc. early Thursday reviewed recent moves in acquisitions, stadium deals, and point-of-sale technology, both for its longstanding position in the U.S. hospitality market and overseas. Even more ambitious initiatives are looming, promised chief executive …

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How Global Payments Looks to ISVs, Payfacs, And M&A to Spur Growth

Global Payments Inc. remains invested in growing by acquisition, but it’s equally committed to growth via third-party agents such as independent software vendors and payment facilitators, its chief executive said early Wednesday as he reviewed his company’s June-quarter results and discussed its strategies in the two markets it straddles—issuing and …

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How FIS Is Banking on Bank Sales Post Worldpay

FIS Inc. isn’t quite the factor in merchant processing it once was, but the big Jacksonville, Fla.-based processor remains a significant factor in digital payments, specifically for banks, its top management was at pains to stress early Tuesday as the company reported its second-quarter results. “We’re very pleased with our …

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Fiserv’s Small Business Index Improves in July But Restaurants Lag

Major payments providers have focused in recent years on signing and providing devices and services for restaurants, but that big bet may be taking at least a temporary beating, according to the latest Small Business Index from the big processor Fiserv Inc. The overall index, which is derived from Milwaukee-based …

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Mastercard’s Chief Executive Laments a Broken Interchange Deal

Mastercard Inc.’s chief executive early Wednesday deplored the recent collapse of a key interchange settlement and highlighted the card company’s rapid progress in tokenization, a key technology that masks actual card data from potential cyberthieves. Pointing to a U.S. District Court judge’s rejection last month of an agreement between merchants and …

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PayPal’s New CEO Looks to New Checkout Flows As the Company Plays a ‘Long Game’

When Alex Chriss took over in September as PayPal’s chief executive, he promised to shake up what he saw as a complacent payments engine. Now, the company is starting to see some tangible results from Chriss’s moves, though the new boss isn’t entirely satisfied. “We know there is much more …

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Shift4 Makes a Card-Present Play in Europe With Its Fabrick Partnership

The major U.S. payments processor Shift4 Payments Inc. said early Monday it will work with Fabrick S.p.a. to offer the Milan-based company’s embedded-finance and payments-orchestration services to merchants in Europe. Terms of the deal were not immediately available. For Fabrick, the deal means the 6-year-old company can rely on Shift4’s …

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Card Issuer Marqeta Will Support Visa’s Flexible Credential

Marqeta Inc. early Thursday said it has become the first card-issuing platform to adopt technology announced earlier this year by Visa Inc. that lets cardholders toggle among a variety of payment methods for a single card rather than be restricted to the payment type indicated by the card itself. Oakland, …

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Fiserv Racks up Growth Via Strength in Merchant Services

Fiserv Inc.’s top brass early Wednesday celebrated a second quarter in which adjusted revenue jumped 7% and adjusted earnings per share grew 18%, but it was new programs and alliances—including one with Apple Inc.—that took center stage as the company presented its second-quarter results. Cash Flow Central, a banking alliance …

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