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September, 2021

• 8 September

  With Square Register’s Canadian Launch, Square Adds to Its Momentum Toward Bigger Sellers

  

  Looking to move further upmarket from the small sellers it started with, Square Inc. on Wednesday announced it is launching its Square Register point-of-sale system in Canada. Square is promoting the technology, which includes a screen facing the customer as well as one for the merchant, as suited to a …
• 7 September

  Mastercard Expands Its Open Banking Reach With an Agreement to Acquire Aiia

  

  Mastercard Inc. strengthened its hand in open banking on Monday, reaching an agreement to acquire European open-banking platform provider Aiia. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to strengthen Mastercard’s position as a provider of open-banking services in Europe. Mastercard established a presence in the business …

August, 2021

• 25 August

  Card Spending Surges in the Wake of Covid-Induced Shifts in Consumer Behavior

  

  Out of the gloom surrounding the U.S. economy since the onset of Covid-19 comes a report that consumer spending on credit and debit cards is not only robust, but also stronger than it was even two years ago. Dollar volume on payment cards in July was 21% higher than in …
• 23 August

  PayPal Expands Its Cryptocurrency Strategy Outside the U.S. With a Thrust Into the U.K.

  

  As part of its strategy to be a leader in digital currencies, PayPal Holdings Inc. on Monday announced it will enable users in the United Kingdom to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency through their PayPal wallets. The move marks the first expansion of PayPal support for cryptocurrency outside the United …
• 20 August

  E-Commerce Loses Some Momentum As Sales Slowed Down in the Latest Quarter

  

  The boom in e-commerce, which was touched off more than a year ago by the coronavirus pandemic, may be showing signs of losing steam. U.S. e-commerce sales in the second quarter totaled $222.5 billion, up 9.1% from the same quarter a year ago, according to numbers released Thursday by the …
• 10 August

  Paymentus Acquires Payveris To Build Out It Bill-Pay Platform

  

  Paymentus Holdings Inc., a provider of cloud-based bill-payment technology, announced Tuesday it has agreed to acquire Payveris LLC, a digital money-movement platform, in a deal valued at $152.2 million. Paymentus will pay 56% of the purchase price in cash and the remainder in Paymentus Class A common stock. The acquisition …
• 6 August

  Paya Looks to M&A, ISVs, And ACH for Growth As It Reports a Strong First Quarter

  

  Paya Holdings Inc. hasn’t let up on its search for growth via acquisitions as it plays to its strengths in integrated payments and automated clearing house processing.  The Reston, Va.-based company reported early Friday a record-high $10.7 billion in payment volume for the first quarter, a number that doesn’t include …
• 2 August

  Square Is Set to Become an Overnight Force In BNPL With Its Afterpay Acquisition

  

  Square Inc.’s acquisition of Afterpay Ltd. is expected to give Square a ready-made product in the hotly competitive buy now, pay later market that it can quickly plug into its consumer and merchant applications to make it an immediate force in BNPL.  Square on Sunday announced it was acquiring Afterpay, …

July, 2021

• 29 July

  Mastercard Outlines a Strong Quarter As It Pursues Strategies in Crypto, 5G, And Open Banking

  

  As they have for rival Visa Inc., transaction volumes are continuing to improve for Mastercard Inc. as world commerce stages its recovery from the impact of the pandemic. “The strong momentum we started the year with accelerated this quarter,” chief executive Michael Miebach said Thursday morning during a session with …
• 22 July

  Visa Agrees to Lay out Nearly $1 Billion to Acquire Britain’s Cross-Border Specialist Currencycloud

  

  Visa Inc. has been concentrating on building out its “network-of-networks” strategy for some time, and it’s latest move in that project came early Thursday with the news that it has agreed to acquire Currency Cloud Ltd., a London-based developer of application programming interfaces that can simplify cross-border payments. The deal values …