E-Commerce

Discover Financial Services reported $1.6 billion in net income in the 2021 first quarter, a reversal of a $61 million loss in the same quarter in 2020. Discover said its payment services volume was $75.9 billion, a 19% increase year-over-year. Dollar volume on its Pulse debit network increased 23% year-over-year, driven …

The buy now, pay later trend has eased online purchases for consumers over the past year, but at the other end of those transactions is the flow of returns after buyers get their merchandise. Now Affirm Holdings Inc., a leading player in the fast-growing BNPL arena has attacked the issue with …

French processor Worldline S.A. reported its first-quarter merchant-services revenue dropped 8.7% year-over-year to 517 million euros ($621 million), while its terminals and software unit saw a 16.5% decline to 266 million euros ($320 million). Worldline acquired terminal maker Ingenico Group S.A. in October.FIS Inc. said it has won a domestic acquiring license for its Worldpay …

North America has emerged as the largest sales-generating region for buy now, pay later provider Afterpay Ltd. In the Australia-based company’s latest financial results, North America sales accounted for A$2.6 billion (US$2 billion) in the third quarter ended March 30. Only Australia and New Zealand approach that volume. Overall, Afterpay said …

Some 83% of consumers said they had used a QR code in the past year to make a payment or complete a financial transaction, with 54% of those persons saying they had used a QR code for those purposes for the first time in only the past three months. Still, just 39% …

Mastercard Inc. said it will acquire Ekata, a digital identity services company, for $850 million. Ekata helps identify good customers and businesses and bad actors in real time, it said. Ekata, formerly the business-to-business unit of Whitepages Pro, spun off in 2019 and adopted the new name. The deal is expected …

More evidence emerges of how consumer spending has changed in the past year. Consumers are using their debit cards more for transactions at hotels and motels within the travel sector, according to the PSCU Payments Index for April. Released Thursday, the index shows that debit card use accounted for 35% …

On its first day of trading as a public company, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. saw its stock finish at $328.28 per share after starting the day at $381 and rising as high as $429.54 on the Nasdaq. The day’s activity left Coinbase with a valuation of $85 billion on a diluted basis, making …

It’s a relatively new arrival among payment options for general merchandise, but the newest buy now, pay later concept has been available for air travel for some time, helping boost airlines after a tough year in 2020. In the latest development, Universal Air Travel Plan Inc. on Wednesday announced it …

Cloud-based point-of-sale system provider Toast Inc. has issued updates for its Toast Order & Pay services designed to smooth the ordering and payment aspects. Announced Tuesday, the updates include the ability to gain a pre-authorization against a credit or debit card using the diner’s own device.  Boston-based Toast also made …