Competitive Strategies

A new European Commission report shows how interchange regulation has lowered merchants’ payment card acceptance costs and taken more than $3 billion a year from card issuers’ top lines. The EC, the executive arm of the Brussels-based European Union, implemented its so-called Interchange Fee Regulation in 2015 and 2016. The …

Website-creation platform Wix.com Ltd. launched its e-commerce service that offers Wix Payments, a payment-processing service.The Regal movie-theater chain, a unit of Cineworld Group, said it will reopen its 541 U.S. theaters July 31 and will implement contactless payments along with other measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.Marqeta Inc. said it will support issuance …

Chargebacks reverberate throughout the payment stream, and now Chargebacks911 has released a tool that it says will help financial institutions better manage them. Dubbed Fi911, the tool is meant to automate procedures and make them more efficient, Clearwater, Fla.-based Chargebacks911 says. The company says more chargeback inquiries are being directed …

Stories too good to be true often aren’t. The curtain has at long last been pulled back on high-flying payments fintech Wirecard AG. A whopping $2.1 billion in cash on its balance sheet can’t be verified and likely never existed. Chief executive Markus Braun has resigned and was arrested. Chief …

American Express Co. announced a global, $200 million Shop Small campaign to support small businesses, many of which have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. U.S. AmEx cardholders can get $5 back after they spend $10 or more, up to 10 times, when they buy online or in-store at qualified businesses …

While e-commerce sales overall have ballooned for many merchants since the March 11 declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic, health-and-beauty and business supplies generally did not. Until last week. Online business supplies sales were up 21% and health-and-beauty sales were up 20% for the week of June 16-22, reports the Signifyd …

ATM network operator Cardtronics plc said customers of Social Finance Inc. (SoFi) will get access to the 55,000 ATMs in the Cardtronics-owned Allpoint surcharge-free network, including several at the new SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, under a new agreement between the companies.Payment technology provider Galileo announced the full launch of Galileo Instant, a service …

All card schemes are now on board with the new deadline for the U.S. EMV liability shift in April 2021. So, the time to upgrade—if you haven’t—is now.  Adding EMV chip readers both inside a store and at automated fuel dispensers (AFDs) isn’t intended to be a hardship for gas …

Paysafe Group on Thursday capped a recent restructuring of its payment-processing unit with the appointment of a chief executive for the unit’s U.S. acquiring division. Afshin Yazdian on July 1 will take over the division, one of two businesses formed with the splitting of the company’s payment-processing unit. Paysafe also …

German payments provider Wirecard, which entered the U.S. market in 2016, filed for insolvency, it announced Thursday, following the disclosure last week of more than $2 billion in disputed cash. It is evaluating whether insolvency will be filed for its subsidiaries.In an update, Mastercard Inc. reported its switched transaction volume recorded a 1% increase in the …