News

February, 2023

• 14 February

  U.K. Regulators Are Mulling BNPL Legislation

  

  Two years after announcing United Kingdom lawmakers would regulate buy now, pay later services, HM Treasury, the British government’s financial arm, has begun its consultation process. As reported in The Guardian, the process will take eight weeks and will outline the rules that BNPL providers will have to follow. Klarna …
• 14 February

  Visa’s Mobile Move in Africa And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/14/23

  

  Visa Inc. is working with Tingo Mobile, a unit of the global fintech MICT Inc., in an effort to expand access to digital payments throughout Africa. The move starts with the Tingo Visa Card, along with a TingoPay mobile app and a TingoPay business portal. Klarpay AG, a fintech offering businesses …
• 13 February

  Georgia Takes Aim At Interchange Levied on Sales Tax

  

  Georgia has joined a small but growing number of states that have introduced legislation to ban the portion of credit and debit card transaction fees that apply to sales tax. The Georgia bill, introduced late last week by Georgia state senator Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro), proposes prohibiting the fees from being …
• 13 February

  FIS Announces a Spin-Off of Its Merchant Solutions Unit Less Than Four Years After Its Worldpay Deal

  

  In a quarterly earnings call held on short notice, top management at FIS Inc. confirmed early Monday the Jacksonville, Fla. -based company plans to spin off its merchant-services business within the next 12 months. The move comes less than four years after FIS acquired the big merchant processor Worldpay for …
• 13 February

  Nuvei’s F1 Ambition And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/13/23

  

  Nuvei Corp. said it will be a multiyear sponsor of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team. Business management marketing software provider Marketing 360 added a tap-to-pay feature to its mobile app, enabling its clients to accept payment cards and digital wallets. The cryptocurrency-payments platform Wirex said it will become a member of Visa Inc. in …
• 10 February

  Global Payments Adds EVO But Cashiers Gaming And NetSpend As It Posts Record Volume for ’22

  

  The big transaction processor Global Payments Inc. is set to get significantly bigger by the end of March, its top executives stressed early Friday as they underscored the importance of scale in a business in which Atlanta-based Global processed a record 64 billion-plus transactions in 2022, according to chief executive …
• 10 February

  January Restaurant Spending Soars And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/10/23

  

  January retail sales, excluding automotive, were up 8.8% over January 2022, Mastercard Inc. said in its latest SpendingPulse report. Restaurant spending, in particular, was high at 24.2% more sales year-over-year. Spending on Bank of America Corp. credit and debit cards increased 5.1% year-over-year in January in a sign the bank interprets as “signs of …
• 9 February

  PayPal’s Schulman Announces He Will Retire As CEO at Year’s End

  

  Dan Schulman, chief executive and president of PayPal Holdings Inc., will retire at the end of the year but retain a seat on the company’s board, he revealed late Thursday during a conference call with equity analysts to discuss PayPal’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 results. Schulman, who turned 65 in …
• 9 February

  Mastercard Says It Will Work With Xsolla to Remove Friction From Videogame Purchases

  

  Mastercard Inc. is teaming with videogame-commerce company Xsolla in an effort to smooth online-gaming checkouts by enabling new payment options for Xsolla’s videogame platform, the card network said. Mastercard cardholders will be able pay for gaming purchasing using credit card loyalty points from participating merchants and issuers. They can also …
• 9 February

  Affirm Cuts 19% of Its Workforce As Heightened Interest Rates Buffet Its Results

  

  The buy now, pay later trend has lifted a wide range of companies specializing in these online and point-of-sale installment-payment products, not least Affirm Holdings Inc. But late on Wednesday the 11-year-old company reported subpar results for its December quarter and announced it is dismissing 19% of its workforce. The …