Fiserv Inc. in recent years hasn’t been shy about entering new businesses, and now the company is preparing for an expansion of its stake in a market that has picked up considerable momentum in recent years: the data management that lies at the foundation of such operations as open banking. …
Read More »As Visa Contends With Inflation And the War for Ukraine, It Posts a ‘Very Strong’ Quarter
A year ago, you might have heard payments-network bigwigs complaining about the pandemic’s impact on revenues and volumes. Now, not so much. But, late Tuesday, Visa Inc. indicated it has been hit by a fresh development—Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That war, which began Feb. 24, trimmed 4 percentage points off …
Read More »As Other Markets Advance, the U.S. Has Much Catching up To Do in Real Time Payments
With the expected introduction by the Federal Reserve next year of a commercial real-time payments platform for the United States, total instant payments in the U.S. market will rise nearly five-fold, to 8.9 billion, by 2026. That’s up from 1.8 billion last year. The dollar volume on these transactions will …
Read More »Apple’s Switch to Visa for Its Virtual Cash Card Could Come Down to International Connections
Apple Inc. is switching its network affiliation for its Apple Pay Cash virtual debit card to Visa Inc. after more than four years of issuing the card on the Discover Network. Information about the rationale for the move was not immediately available as the news emerged late last week on …
Read More »AmEx Brushes off Inflation Fears As It Reports Big First Quarter Results
American Express Co. reported a strong first quarter early Friday that betokens a return to pre-pandemic performance for the company, though it also confronts questions stemming from emerging inflation and the threat of recession. AmEx reported overall spending in its crucial travel-and-entertainment business in March reached 99% of the total …
Read More »Another Arena Adopts Digital Payments As the MLB Nationals Work With FIS-Worldpay
The competition to bring digital-payments capability to sports arenas is getting hotter. FIS Inc. announced early Thursday its Worldpay unit is exclusively processing payments for tickets, concessions, and merchandise at Washington D.C.’s Nationals Park, home of the city’s Nationals Major League Baseball team. As part of the deal, Jacksonville, Fla.-based …
Read More »Restaurant-Payments Startup GoTab Expands to the Northwest With Its PaySuite Partnership
The hospitality industry continues to heat up as a market for digital-payments processing and technology, attracting established players and startups alike. Early Tuesday, GoTab Inc. said it is working with business-software firm PaySuite to sell its services to restaurants in the Pacific Northwest. The first installation is a food hall …
Read More »Interchange Increases Will Exacerbate Inflation, a Growing List of Merchant Groups Contend
One of the country’s biggest merchant associations on Monday joined a growing chorus of voices arguing fee increases planned by the major card networks for this month will exacerbate inflation. “American consumers are struggling under the worst inflation in four decades, and these increases would only make the situation worse,” …
Read More »Lawmakers May Be Smarter About Payments, But Providers Can’t Let Their Guard Down
Be careful what you wish for. For years, payments processors have contended that state and local lawmakers and regulators would enact better regulations if they were better-informed about how payments work. The good news is that’s now happening, said Kim Ford, senior vice president of government relations at Fiserv Inc. …
Read More »Often Overlooked, Checkout Is Assuming New Significance in Payments, Experts Say
Customer checkout, whether online or at a store, can be taken for granted by merchants and payments firms alike. That’s a big mistake, according to a panel of experts who spoke Wednesday about new opportunities—and threats—lurking in checkout buttons. For one thing, checkouts can represent a battleground in which players …
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