Competitive Strategies

At least some payments players appear to be preparing for an important new phase in the buy now, pay later business, with an opening salvo to include significantly larger loans and revised credit terms that make the advances appear more like traditional installment programs. The move comes as the short-term …

Large retailers that use Fiserv Inc. payments-acceptance technology can add loyalty functions via a new agreement between Fiserv and loyalty-technology provider Exchange Solutions.The global standards body EMVCo said it is developing an EMV Contactless Kernel Specification for contactless payment acceptance around the world. The new specification will take the place of the more than …

Block Inc.’s Cash App unit perked up in the first quarter, as the company reported that usage and instant-deposit volume for the digital wallet both increased during the period. With Bitcoin activity excluded, revenue for Cash App in the quarter grew $203 million, a 38% jump, compared to the first …

Bank of America Institute reported that credit and debit card spending by BofA credit and debit cardholders increased 13% in April compared to the same month in 2021. Credit card dollar volume rose 22%, while spending on debit cards was up 6%. Combined transactions increased 8%.Some 43% of consumers would use …

Kabbage from American Express has been tracking recovery trends and the growth outlook for U.S. small businesses. Polling 563 small-business leaders, our latest installment exhibits how small businesses are adapting to a shifting market as they look beyond pandemic-wrought challenges, adjust for inflation, and modify hiring approaches. Small businesses are preparing …

Lightspeed Commerce Inc. early Thursday announced the launch of Lightspeed Retail. The new platform, which pulls features from platforms of other companies the Montreal-based processor has acquired, combines point-of-sale, payments, and e-commerce solutions.  The platform also leverages so-called headless commerce technology, which is an e-commerce architecture where front-end applications are decoupled …

The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Senate heard testimony Wednesday from witnesses both for and against regulation of credit card interchange. Speakers represented a supermarket chain, merchant groups, Mastercard and Visa, and a bank. The hearing showed that “while more Democrats than Republicans likely would support greater intervention in the …

The big payments fintech Stripe Inc. extended its reach into the world of open banking late on Wednesday with the launch of Stripe Financial Connections, an application that allows businesses to establish direct connections with their customers’ bank accounts. The new application will enable businesses to verify accounts for payments …

There’s a bit of apparent good news when it comes to chargebacks. The chargeback-to-transaction ratio decreased from 1.94% in 2020 to 1.52% in 2021, and is also down from the remarkable 3.76% seen in 2017. That’s according to the fourth annual “The Year in Chargebacks Report” from Midigator LLC, a …

Against a background of emerging real-time payments and steady growth in automated clearing house transactions, The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC is working to mask those transfers with a technology the payment card business has used for years—tokenization. The job is enormous. “We’re just starting—it’s going to take time,” says …