Sunday , February 16, 2025

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.

AmEx’s New Debit Card Is Part of a Big Thrust Commercial Banks Should ‘Watch Closely’

With its launch on Thursday of a digital checking account for business and an associated debit card, American Express Co. could be poised to shake up the payments business in ways not seen before, observers say. “This announcement represents the greatest threat to financial institutions who are competing for the …

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Mastercard Eyes Deeper Involvement in A2A Transfers And Crypto As It Reports a Strong Third Quarter

Mastercard reported a strong third quarter on Thursday as it builds out the foundations for a near-term future in which it sees itself playing a central role in new transaction flows involving account-to-account (A2A) transfers and digital-currency payments. Mastercard has been laying the groundwork for A2A business for at least …

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[UPDATE] POS Device Maker Pax Draws Scrutiny Following Allegations of ‘Strange Network Activity’

[UPDATED TO REFLECT A STATEMENT FROM PAX] A report released on Tuesday detailing a raid by federal investigators at a Florida warehouse linked to Pax Technology Inc. has stunned the payments industry and left some observers concerned about the big point-of-sale device maker’s reported reaction to allegations its technology was …

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BNPL Offers Big Potential for Market Share But Also Flashes Caution Signs for the Unwary, a Panel Says

The rapidly unfolding buy now, pay later business holds huge potential for point-of-sale lenders but flashes caution signs for players that jump in without doing their homework, a panel of experts said Tuesday at the Money 20/20 exposition in Las Vegas. The BNPL product, which generally allows shoppers to pay …

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Microsoft Signs up With FIS’s Worldpay for Online Processing Beyond Latin America

Microsoft Corp. will significantly expand its processing arrangement with the big Worldpay unit of FIS Inc. to include the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific under a new agreement announced Tuesday. The agreement will support credit and debit card transactions Microsoft receives on online properties, including Xbox, Microsoft Advertising, and Microsoft Azure, …

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A New Report Shows Just How Many Consumers Have Adopted Digital Payments Since Covid

It has been known anecdotally over the past year that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has shifted consumers to digital payments. On Monday, survey results emerged to show just how extensive that shift has been. Roughly one-third of consumers who now use such services as digital wallets, peer-to-peer payments, …

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AmEx Posts a Strong Quarter As Its CEO Signals Caution on BNPL, Crypto, And Acquisitions

American Express Co. reported strong results Friday morning for its third quarter as its top executive said the company hasn’t exhausted its interest in acquisitions, though he added the New York City-based payments company is cool to the prospects for cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange. Chief executive Stephen Squeri …

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Plaid Launches an Initiative With Multiple Fintechs to Enable a Wider Reach for Account-Based Payments

The big open-banking provider Plaid Inc. on Thursday launched a major international campaign to support so-called account-based payments, working in league with almost 50 fintech companies and service providers in North America and Europe. The partners include long-time Plaid allies Dwolla Inc. and Square Inc., as well as new connections …

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B2B and Health-Care Payments Help Drive a Robust Quarter for the ACH

Driven by a surge in business-to-business and health-care claims payments, transactions on the nation’s automated clearing house network swelled 7.7% year-over-year in the third quarter, according to Nacha, the organization that governs the network. Transactions totaled 7.3 billion, up by 520 million, while dollar volume totaled $18.1 trillion, a 13/8% …

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Visa’s Latest Debit Card Perk Is Eligibility for ReadyLink, its Prepaid Reload Network

In a move aimed in part at accommodating digital-only financial institutions, Visa Inc. on Saturday opened its ReadyLink prepaid top-up network for the first time to debit cards. “The expansion makes Visa ReadyLink available to all consumer and business debit cards. The service is optional and issuers need to opt-in,” …

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