Friday , December 13, 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.

Stablecoins Join International Relief Efforts As Circle’s Platform Backs Aid Distribution

Stablecoins are coming to international disaster aid with the announcement Thursday that Ireland-based AID:Tech, a 5-year-old financial-services company specializing in relief distribution around the world, will work with Circle Internet Financial LLC to distribute aid via USD Coin, whose value is tied to the U.S. dollar. “Collaborating with AID:Tech to …

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Card Spending Surges in the Wake of Covid-Induced Shifts in Consumer Behavior

Out of the gloom surrounding the U.S. economy since the onset of Covid-19 comes a report that consumer spending on credit and debit cards is not only robust, but also stronger than it was even two years ago. Dollar volume on payment cards in July was 21% higher than in …

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Fiserv Expands Vending Operations Across Europe in a Deal With Operator Selecta

Fiserv Inc. is rolling out payment-acceptance technology to food-and-beverage vending machines in multiple markets across Europe in a move that supports mobile wallets as well as global and local payment cards. Selecta Group, operator of the machines, says its network supports devices in 16 countries selling snacks, meals, and coffee …

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An Acquisitive Paysafe Strikes a Deal to Acquire viafintech, a German Payments Provider

Fresh off a pair of acquisitions in the Latin American market, Paysafe Group Holdings Ltd. over the weekend announced a major move into the European Continent with a deal to acquire viafintech, a neobank and payments provider based in Berlin, in an all-cash transaction. Terms were not announced. The deal …

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E-Commerce Loses Some Momentum As Sales Slowed Down in the Latest Quarter

The boom in e-commerce, which was touched off more than a year ago by the coronavirus pandemic, may be showing signs of losing steam. U.S. e-commerce sales in the second quarter totaled $222.5 billion, up 9.1% from the same quarter a year ago, according to numbers released Thursday by the …

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Mastercard’s Credit Card Fees Find Themselves in the Cross-Hairs of a U.K. Class Action

While the two global payments networks have been embroiled in a controversy over merchant debit card fees in the U.S. market, they also face trouble in the United Kingdom over an even bigger issue: credit card interchange fees. That fact was thrown into relief early Thursday when Reuters reported the …

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Pulse Debit Study: Online And Contactless Usage Surges While Wallets Assert Themselves

The story of debit cards in the pandemic year of 2020 turns out to have several chapters—including higher average tickets, a sharp swing to card-not-present usage, a dramatic surge in contactless adoption, and higher mobile-wallet usage. Meanwhile, account-to-account transfers turned out to be the fastest-growing form of debit, though usage …

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How Paysafe Sees Its SafetyPay Deal As a Major Move Into Open Banking

Open banking has been a big trend in payments for some time, and now traditional payment processors are getting in on the action. Paysafe Group Holdings Ltd. early on Monday announced it has agreed to pay $441 million to acquire Miami-based SafetyPay, a 15-year-old provider of digital payments for cash-paying …

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The DoJ Supports the Fed’s Debit-Routing Proposal, But Would Like to See it Toughened

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday lent its weight to a proposed rule from the Federal Reserve Board that would reinforce merchants’ choice of networks for e-commerce transactions arising from debit cards. At the same time, it suggested the rule could be made more stringent. Justice’s support for the …

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Merchants Redouble Their Efforts to Push the Fed on Debit’s Routing And Pricing Rules

With a Federal Reserve deadline hitting Wednesday for comments on decade-old debit card regulations, large merchants are firing some last-minute salvos in hopes of influencing the Fed to make major revisions to rules governing transaction routing and pricing. “[M]ajor banks and networks continue to interfere with competition for debit business,” …

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