Fiserv Inc. on Monday announced a feature that lets consumers upload bills to a mobile wallet via a quick-response code, pay the bill, and have the bill automatically update with each new cycle. The move comes as billers seek ways to leverage rising mobile usage to digitize bills and hike …
Read More »Visa Agrees to Buy Verifi As Payments Players Wrestle With Rising Chargebacks
Visa Inc. on Friday announced it will buy Verifi Inc., a 14-year-old, Los Angeles-based provider of tools that allow merchants, acquirers, and issuers to resolve chargebacks. Visa, which did not announce terms for the deal, said it will integrate Verifi’s technology with risk-management capabilities from CyberSource and CardinalCommerce, companies the …
Read More »With Its New Installment-Payment APIs, Visa Enters a Crowded But Enticing Market
Visa Inc. said on Thursday it is getting into the point-of-sale installment-payment business weeks after rival Mastercard Inc. announced it bought Austin, Texas-based POS credit fintech Vyze Inc. The move also comes as volumes are growing for the product, driven in part by offerings from non-banks like Affirm Inc. and …
Read More »Point-of-Sale Credit Resonates Best With Regular Debit Card Holders, Research Finds
Installment lending at the point of sale has drawn both startups and established companies, including banks, in recent years, but who among consumers finds that offer most attractive? The answer, according to New York City-based Auriemma Research, is consumers who pay with debit cards exclusively or say they prefer to. …
Read More »Will Facebook’s Big User Numbers Be Enough to Catapult Calibra?
Facebook Inc. has said it will turn over control of its Libra cryptocurrency initiative to a consortium of companies that will constitute the Libra Association. But one related property the massive social network will retain, albeit as an arm’s-length subsidiary, is its new Calibra unit, which will run Facebook’s own …
Read More »Eye on Security: California Is the Golden State for Data Breaches; Florida City Pays Bitcoin Ransom
A new analysis of 10 years’ worth of figures on data breaches reveals that California by far holds the dubious distinction of suffering the most breaches as well as leaking the most records. Meanwhile, a Florida city has agreed to pay hackers about $600,000 in Bitcoin to be released from …
Read More »Eye on the Point of Sale: Shopify’s New Features; Casio’s Pay-At-Table Software
Shopify Inc. late on Tuesday announced a slew of services aimed at significantly broadening the support the Ottawa, Ontario-based provider offers to small and mid-size merchants. Among these are new point-of-sale software, a fulfillment network, and new checkout-integrated subscription-payment support. The fulfillment network is a first-of-its-kind offering for Shopify, the company …
Read More »Facebook And 27 Other Companies Announce Libra, a New Blockchain-Backed Crypto Coin
An association of major payments and technology companies will launch a blockchain-based digital currency called Libra some time in the first half of next year, according to an official announcement on Tuesday. The new initiative, some details about which have leaked in recent days, has the backing of Facebook Inc. …
Read More »As Facebook’s Libra Provokes A Slew of Questions, An Expert Struggles With the Coin’s ‘Justification’
Facebook Inc. is expected to release details this week, perhaps as early as Tuesday, on its Libra cryptocurrency initiative, but for now what’s known about the project has at least some experts shaking their heads. “Why a cryptocurrency, and why Facebook?” asks Tim Sloane, who follows digital currencies as vice …
Read More »Payments Companies Sign up to Help Manage Facebook’s Expected Crypto Entry
At least four payments companies are set to participate in a consortium formed by Facebook Inc. to launch a cryptocurrency next year aimed at commerce rather than exchange trading, according to a report Friday in The Wall Street Journal. Facebook is expected to officially announce the initiative next week. The …
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