Mobile Wallets

Despite inflation hitting a 40-year high, consumer spending during the back-to-school season is projected to increase 7.5%, excluding automotive sales, from 2021 levels, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse, which measures in-store and online retail sales across all forms of payment, not adjusted for inflation.  Department stores are expected to be …

Payments provider Sionic announced a service that allows consumers to pay merchants at the point of sale via real-time transfers from the consumer’s bank account to the merchant’s bank account. The service includes incentives merchants can use to induce consumers to use the service in preference to rewards credit cards.XTM Inc. announced it …

Signs continue to mount that peer-to-peer payments are being adopted by businesses, and in turn could be encroaching on card payments at the point-of-sale.  A recent survey of 530 small businesses conducted by The Strawhecker Group and titled “P2P Payment: A Disruption To Plastic?” reveals that 82% of small businesses …

Fiserv Inc. said more than 300 sports and entertainment venues are now using Clover Sport to provide payment and marketing services to fans. Clover Sport is based on Fiserv’s Clover point-of-sale technology.MoneyGram International Inc. launched a service that supports money transfers via the Stellar Network’s public blockchain and USD Coin, a stablecoin from Circle Internet …

When Apple Inc. on Monday announced Apple Pay Later, its buy now, pay later program, the computing giant added an unexpected twist. The new program will not rely for financing on Goldman Sachs, Apple’s long-time partner for Apple Pay. Rather, Apple is setting up its own unit, to be called …

The pandemic sent workers home to work, and online criminals have been quick to take advantage of that mass migration. Phishing attacks are now at a record high, with incidents in the first quarter breaching 1 million for the first time, according to a report released Tuesday by the Anti-Phishing …

MagicCube Inc. has chiefly aimed its tap-to-pay technology at small sellers to allow them to take card payments directly on an off-the-shelf mobile device. But on Monday the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company announced a version of its i-Accept platform for enterprise and big-box merchants.  To make i-Accept more attractive to …

Total credit and debit card dollar volume for Bank of America Corp. increased 9% in May year-over-year, with credit card volume up 16% and debit volume up 9%, the Bank of America Institute reported.A research report from Aite-Novarica finds what the report calls “excessively high rates” of identity theft, which the report says …

Apple Inc.’s sneak peek at its iOS16 operating system on Monday included the news that the new version will include Apple’s widely expected entry in the hot buy now, pay later market. Available in the U.S. market, Apple Pay Later will be accepted at all places that take Apple Pay …

Square intrigued the payments industry a decade ago when it emerged to provide small sellers with a simple dongle they could attach to a mobile phone to accept card payments. Now Square says it’s moving to the next step. The company announced Thursday that later this year it will adopt …