Payments fraud was already rising, and now experts predict increased online usage brought on by stay-at-home orders will only exacerbate the trend. While losses haven’t shown up yet, e-commerce activity taking place now is sowing the seeds of a dramatic jump in coming months. “Fraud is always a trailing activity,” …

A trend toward a near-total collapse in travel-and-entertainment spending helped drive down overall first-quarter card volume and discount revenue for American Express Co., the company reported Friday. “March was a very difficult month,” Stephen Squeri, AmEx’s chairman and chief executive, told stock analysts during a morning conference call. As with …

With consumers contending with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, rewards offered by the card networks could take on added importance. Blackhawk Network is counting on that, and has introduced a capability for mobile-phone users to add digital rewards to their Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay wallets. Working …

The nation’s largest issuer of store cards sounded a note of optimism Tuesday as the Covid-19 crisis continued to ravage consumer spending. “Believe it or not, there are deals in the pipeline [with merchants],” said Margaret Keane, chief executive of Synchrony Financial. “We’re not sitting back. We’re highly engaged.” Keane …

Among payment devices, gift cards are unique in that they can promote a business as well as enable payments at the store or online. That’s an edge at a time of a pandemic, and now technology platforms that support digital gift cards are leveraging that advantage. Yiftee Inc. late on …

Under pressure for months from governments and regulators worldwide, the Libra cryptocurrency venture has applied for a key payments-system license and changed course on a number of its prime strategies, including setting out new plans for single-currency stablecoins and a stronger compliance regime. FINMA, the Swiss financial regulator, confirmed Thursday …

If the first quarter of the year is any indication, person-to-person payments might be getting a big lift as stay-at-home consumers look for safe ways to pay in the face of the Covid-19 outbreak. Bank of America Corp. reported Wednesday transactions on its Zelle platform shot up 76% compared to …

With restaurants in most major markets across the country forced to shut down on-premise dining because of the Covid-19 outbreak, online ordering, takeout, and delivery services are suddenly in the spotlight as local restaurants and other small, independent establishments grasp at technology to stay alive. That’s an immediate opportunity for …

Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. have postponed their planned U.S. interchange revisions until July, but when these changes do take effect the net impact on merchants will be deep, according to an analysis released by CMSPi, an Atlanta-based global merchant payments consultancy. Indeed, the new pricing planned by the two …

The good news is that attempted and actual payments fraud declined last year. The bad news is it went down only a tick and remains very close to the all-time high, according to the latest report from the Association for Financial Professionals, a Bethesda, Md.-based trade group for companies across …