As were all payments networks, Mastercard Inc. was hammered by the novel coronavirus pandemic, but its leaders Wednesday morning pointed to a tentative recovery. “Overall, we see signs of improvement, but we’re not out of the woods yet,” noted Ajay Banga, Mastercard’s outgoing chief executive, during a conference call with …
Read More »Buoyed by Merchant Acceptance, Fiserv Comes Close to Returning to Pre-Covid Levels
Led by its merchant-acquiring unit, Fiserv Inc. in the quarter ended Sept. 30 continued its rebound from the wallop it took from Covid-19. The Brookfield, Wis.-based company reported total revenue, adjusted for its First Data Corp. acquisition in July 2019, of $3.59 billion for the quarter, down a slight 1% …
Read More »Discover Is the Latest to Activate the Common Buy Button As Consumers Go Online in Droves
Discover Network on Tuesday became the latest of the Big 4 card networks to launch the Secure Remote Commerce technology the systems settled on last year to simplify and secure online transactions with a single buy button that works with all participating networks. The move comes as hordes of U.S. …
Read More »‘We Hope the Worst Is Behind Us’ Says AmEx’s Boss As the Company Shows Signs of a Comeback
As the economy registers a tentative recovery from the deep recession caused by Covid-19, payments networks are doing likewise. This is probably no more true than with American Express Co., whose concentration in the travel-and-entertainment market caused the company’s financials to nosedive earlier this year as the pandemic grounded airlines, …
Read More »Instacart Pairs With Aldi for a First-Time Service Offering Grocery Delivery for EBT Users
As Covid-19 cases spike around the country, grocers and technology companies alike are scrambling to blunt the pandemic’s financial impact. On Thursday, the online delivery service Instacart announced it is starting a program with the grocery chain Aldi to allow recipients of federal SNAP benefits to use their electronic benefit …
Read More »The ACH Recorded 9% Growth in the September Quarter Even Though Covid Aid Trailed off
The nation’s automated clearing house network surged again in the September quarter, even with a waning of federal-assistance payments. Volume grew by double-digit percentage increases in most major categories as the network handled 6.8 billion transactions overall, up 9%, Nacha reported Tuesday. Nacha is the governing body for the network, …
Read More »Square Releases an API to Allow Its Terminal to Ease Acceptance of Contactless Payments
Much has been written about the need for merchants to adopt various forms of contactless payments to suit jittery customers and cashiers in the midst of Covid-19, but often the conversion to touch-free transactions is easier said than done. In response, Square Inc. late Thursday unveiled an application programming interface …
Read More »E-Commerce Will Flourish This Holiday Season, But Watch Out for Fraud, ACI Warns
The economy may have fallen into recession, but processors and online stores can expect a healthy holiday season this year, according to projections released Thursday by ACI Worldwide Inc. The Naples, Fla.-based payments provider said e-commerce transactions will jump 27% globally in the fourth quarter compared to the same period …
Read More »Covid-19’s Long Shadow Is Prompting a Rise in Gift Card Sales, Including Digital Cards
With a looming holiday shopping season inflected by uncertainties surrounding the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, payments firms are trying to work out how consumers may change spending habits this year. A study released Thursday indicates processors expect a healthy jump in e-commerce volume, including a surge for gift cards. …
Read More »A Pilot Is Coming for FedNow, But Some Question the Fed’s Deliberate Pace
The announcement from the Federal Reserve late Monday of a pilot for the FedNow real-time payments service may represent an important stage in the development of a service not expected to go live until 2023 at the earliest. But observers caution rival services have already made headway with key market …
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