Klarna Bank AB, a leading exemplar of the trend toward offering installment-plan payments online and at the point of sale, has received backing from Ant Financial Services Group in a deal that cements an existing alliance between the two companies and could add considerable propulsive force to Klarna’s relatively new …
Read More »The Faster Payments Council Seeks a New Executive Director As Kim Ford Steps Down
Kimberly Ford will step down as executive director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council effective May 6 after just 11 months on the job, according to sources. Ford’s resignation was confirmed by an email to members sent Friday and obtained by Digital Transactions News. Applications for the position are being …
Read More »Cash App Helps Drive Growth for a Surging Square
Cash App may be turning into the product that ate Square Inc. The company on Wednesday reported a big fourth quarter for the 4-year-old product as officials pointed to a strong performance overall for the full year. “2019 was a very good year for us,” Square chief executive Jack Dorsey …
Read More »EBay Sets Its Sights on the U.K. As It Prepares to ‘Go Hard’ With Its Managed-Payments Plan
Online marketplace giant eBay Inc. said last month it has an aggressive expansion blueprint for its fledgling managed-payments program, and late on Wednesday the company announced its latest gambit by laying out a plan to move into the United Kingdom this summer. The service has been available in the United …
Read More »Ajay Banga, Architect of Mastercard’s ‘Multi-Rail’ Strategy, Will Step Down As CEO in January
Ajay Banga, chief executive of Mastercard Inc. for the past decade and the strategist who converted what had been mostly a consumer card network into a player in non-card and real-time payments, said Tuesday he will step down Jan. 1 as CEO. He will then assume the role of executive …
Read More »Shopify Joins Libra, Defying a Wave of Defections From the Cryptocurrency Venture
The controversial Libra cryptocurrency project gained a new member Friday with Shopify Inc.’s announcement it will join the Libra Association, the governing body for the fledgling venture. Shopify’s decision comes in the face of a string of eight high-profile defections from the association since October, including decisions by Mastercard Inc., …
Read More »Fiserv Launches PIN-Based Contactless Payments on Nothing More Than Sellers’ Mobile Phones
Fiserv Inc. said this week its First Data unit has performed the first PIN-on-mobile contactless transaction involving only a commercially available mobile device. Observers say the breakthrough could expand the availability of PIN-on-mobile technology significantly by allowing small merchants like food-truck operators and other mobile sellers to accept card payments …
Read More »As Mobile Wallets Proliferate Globally, Pricing Emerges As a Key Tactic for Growth
Mobile wallets aren’t the revolutionary products they were a few years ago, but as more and more entities launch new ones across the world, the apps are getting much more diverse and cheaper to use. That’s because, while sponsors continue to battle for adoption, they’re finding pricing to be a …
Read More »A German Company Unveils a Checkout Buster That Relies on Breakthroughs in RFID Scanning
As merchants and their technology partners continue to develop technology to ditch the familiar checkout, a German entrant on Monday demonstrated a system that would use radio-frequency identification to charge customers as they walk out with their goods. The system, dubbed “payfree,” involves an app that consumers would install in …
Read More »How You Walk Could Some Day Soon Let You Pay to Ride
Two big trends in payments, mass-transit ticketing and advanced authentication technology, could come together soon as Mastercard Inc. develops a system that could identify users simply by the way they walk. Working on the idea that each person has a unique gait, Mastercard and its NuData Security unit are talking …
Read More »