Despite consumers’ intentions to spend more on gifts this holiday season than in 2020, concerns about ongoing shipping delays and low product inventories are making gift cards a more attractive gift option.  Indeed, 33% of consumers say they would purchase a gift card if they were unable to get a …

The momentum behind open banking has received another boost. Open-banking provider MX Technologies Inc. is partnering with upSWOT Inc. to enable small-to-medium-size businesses to connect their bank accounts to import transaction and account information to dashboards that allow them to view the overall health of their businesses. The dashboards offer …

As merchants continue to evolve their business model during the Covid-19 pandemic, they are discovering that consumers want convenience and multiple options when it comes to paying for purchases. While credit cards remain consumers’ preferred method of payment, contactless options are a close second, according to Square Inc.’s second annual “The …

To make it more convenient for its customers to send money using Zelle, the major peer-to-peer payment network operated by Early Warning Services LLC, Bank of America Corp. has developed a Zelle widget that can be added on the home screen of a mobile device. The widget will take BofA …

Klarna AB has expanded its relationship in Europe with virtual card issuing platform Marqeta to 13 new markets. Working with Marqeta, Klarna will offer one-time virtual cards to consumers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. The deal is the …

The risk of being defrauded by online sellers is a major concern for consumers this holiday-shopping season, according to a survey by Socure Inc., a provider of identity-verification and fraud-detection technology. And consumers are poised to blame not just the fraudulent sellers, but the marketplaces that host them, the survey …

Payment-platform provider Dwolla and Infinicept, a Denver-based firm that specializes in embedded payments, are teaming up on new technology for independent software vendors.  The partnership is aimed at making it more economical for business-software providers to include payment processing in their application and reduce their time to market by months. …

The holiday-shopping season is a busy time not just for merchants and consumers, but for criminals, too. Fraud attacks are projected to increase by at least 50% this holiday-shopping season, and will most likely surpass the 56% increase in attacks during the 2020 holiday season, according to Arkose Labs.  Fraudsters …

With defaults on buy now, pay later loans on the rise, BNPL providers need to be cognizant that creating a flexible repayment plan can not only help improve recovery rates, but help retain delinquent customers by providing a better customer experience during the collection phase, says a study from digital …

Strong early holiday spending slightly curtailed consumer spending over the Thanksgiving weekend, according to reports from Adobe Inc. Consumers spent $4.5 billion online on Saturday, down 4.3% from a year ago, and $4.7 billion online the following day, down 0.5% from the same period a year ago. But Adobe is predicting consumers will …