News

February, 2021

• 22 February

  Another Joins Isaacman Space Venture and other Digital Transactions News from 2/22/21

  

  The planned Inspiration4 project, the first space flight with an all-civilian crew, added its second crew member, Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant in Memphis. Crew commander is Shift4 Payments Inc. chief executive Jared Isaacman.Credit union service organization PSCU said spending made with debit cards increased 12.5% for the week ending Feb. 14 compared to …
• 19 February

  Pandemic Or No, Boomers Are Still the Slowest to Adopt Mobile Banking And Contactless

  

  While the Covid-19 pandemic has deepened consumers’ reliance on contactless payments, as well as digital and mobile banking, a generation gap exists when it comes adoption of those technologies, separate reports from Oxygen, a San Francisco-based financial-platform provider, and digital consulting firm Mobiquity, have found. Of the more than 1,000 …
• 19 February

  Fully 30% of Retailers Plan POS Software Replacement in Next 12 Months, Report Finds

  

  As digital commerce sees greater consumer adoption, the impact is being felt at the point of sale. Retailers’ top priority for 2021 is to grow or enhance their digital-commerce efforts, with 85% citing this ambition in the 2021 POS & Customer Engagement Survey Report released this week by Retail Consulting …
• 19 February

  Promise Network Raises $20 Million in Funding and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/19/21

  

  Promise Network Inc., a startup specializing in government-related payments such as utilities, child support, and parking tickets, said it has raised more than $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Kapor Capital and XYZ Venture Capital.A survey by payroll platform Everee Inc. of 400 U.S. independent contractors found that …
• 18 February

  Having Exhausted Covid Scams, Criminals Are Returning to E-Commerce Fraud And Malware Attacks

  

  Now that criminals have milked the bulk of their opportunities related to pandemic relief efforts, they are turning their attention back to their old standby, payments-related fraud. Not surprisingly, their target of choice is e-commerce, which has rocketed due to restrictions on the number of consumers allowed in physical stores and …
• 18 February

  Discover Taps Into the Fast-Growing POS Lending Trend Through BNPL Specialist Sezzle

  

  The economic uncertainty brought on last year by the coronavirus pandemic has given a lift to the point-of-sale installment lending trend, with payments giants like PayPal Holdings Inc. jumping into a market that has been pioneered by fast-growing buy now, pay later startups like Affirm Inc., Afterpay Ltd., Klarna AB, …
• 18 February

  Wirex Preps for U.S. Debut and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/18/21

  

  To support a cryptocurrency-payments launch set for April in the United States, London-based digital-payments platform Wirex has linked to crypto-trading firm Zero Hash. Harold Montgomery, former chief executive of independent sales organization Calpian Inc., is managing director for Wirex USA Inc.Parking-app provider ParkMobile LLC said its latest municipal agreement allows its app to be …
• 17 February

  Google’s Link to Passport Is Part of a Broader Plan to Extend Google Pay to Parking And Transit

  

  Passport Labs Inc., a provider of transportation software, announced Wednesday it is expanding its integration with Alphabet Inc.’s Google to enable payment for parking within Google Maps in more than 400 cities, including Boston, Cincinnati, Portland, Me., Norfolk, Va., Cheyenne, Wy., Westminster, Colo., and Green Bay, Wis. The integration of …
• 17 February

  In a ‘Future That Arrived Early,’ Shopify Invests to Capitalize on Trends Accelerated by Covid

  

  While many payments companies have had their hands full contending with the many impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, payments firms with e-commerce platforms have thrived as consumers flocked to online buying. Shopify Inc. demonstrated Wednesday just how much it’s investing in shopping and payments apps to capitalize on the growth …
• 17 February

  Klarna’s Crypto Foray and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/17/21

  

  Payments provider Klarna AB has entered the cryptocurrency market with an agreement with Swedish crypto broker Safello, which is launching Klarna Open Banking to allow 180,000 Safello users to buy digital currencies directly from their bank accounts.Mastercard Inc. and payments provider Island Pay have collaborated with the central bank of the Bahamas to …