Competitive Strategies

Buy now, pay later provider Klarna AB announced early Monday it is partnering with digital wallet provider OnePay to be the exclusive provider of installment loans to Walmart Inc.’s customers in the United States. Klarna is replacing rival Affirm Holdings Inc. as the retailer’s installment loan provider. Affirm had been …

Square and Cash App parent Block Inc. announced late Thursday its Square Financial Services Inc. industrial bank has received approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to make consumer loans through Block’s Cash App Borrow feature. Square Financial Services launched as a Salt Lake City-based, FDIC-chartered industrial bank in 2021 …

Order.co, a business-to-business payments service, announced a number of enhancements, including real-time transaction tracking and what are said to be more robust security measures. Payments provider Shape Technologies said it will work with PXP, a technology platform, to help independent sales organizations, independent software vendors, and payment facilitators offer services that would …

A leading merchant association and a group representing stablecoin interests early Thursday threw their weight behind efforts to bring stablecoins into the payments mainstream in the United States. The move by the Merchant Payments Coalition and the Payment Choice Coalition seeks to “promote their shared goals of enhancing innovation, competition, …

The Electronic Payments Coalition has launched the latest salvo in its offensive against legislation seeking to regulate credit card interchange. This time the thrust takes aim at federal and state legislative efforts. At the federal level, EPC executive chairman Richard Hunt said during a press conference late Wednesday morning the …

Fortis Payment Systems LLC early Thursday announced it is receiving a capital infusion from a new investor, Audax Private Equity, as well as from an existing investor, Lovell Minnick Partners. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. A privately held company, Fortis actively began seeking new investors about six …

As financial institutions help their customers counter fraud, Feedzai is releasing a tool to help FIs better identify potential scams. Dubbed ScamAlert, the service, which incorporates an artificial-intelligence utility, can help identify tactics criminals use to exploit consumers. Many consumers may initially fall for a scam through a phishing email; …

Account-to-account payments provider Dwolla Inc. has launched an integration to open-banking platform Plaid Inc. The integration is expected to enable Dwolla users to verify accounts and check account balances in real time through a single vendor and application programming interface. Dwolla announced its partnership with Plaid late last year. The …

As credit and debit cards—and their digital doppelgangers—continue to find favor among consumers, the use of cash over the past 10 years has slipped from 44% of in-store spend to 15% in 2024, finds the latest Worldpay Global Payments Report. Released Tuesday, the report, now in its 10th year, says …

Visa Inc. introduced its scam-disruption practice, aimed at identifying and preventing scams “as they emerge,” the company says. Just 26% of credit card holders are “satisfied” with their cards, while 24% are “dissatisfied” and 50% are “indifferent,” according to a survey of 8,000 cardholders age 18 to 45, plus 200 senior …