Online purchases using installment credit will total $680 billion globally in 2025, up 92% from $353 billion last year, projects Kaleido Intelligence.In related news, point-of-sale installment lender Laybuy launched a partner program to help smaller retailers offer the credit. More than 6,000 merchants offer Laybuy.MetaBank N.A., a unit of Meta Financial Group Inc., …

As workers struggle with cash-flow issues that in some cases were worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, banks and fintechs are working to get wages into employees’ hands faster—sometimes in real time. Two such developments emerged this week from Square Inc. and Immediate Solutions Inc., a company that specializes in speeding …

In the ever-more competitive game of payments and open banking, direct data connections matter. On Thursday, MX Technologies Inc. claimed to have more than any other data aggregator, announcing it has exceeded 50,000 links to financial institutions and fintechs. The 10-year-old company, based in Lehi, Utah, competes with major aggregators …

Under an expanded agreement, cross-border payments specialist TransferWise Ltd. will issue Mastercard debit cards in any market globally where Mastercard is accepted and TransferWise is licensed. TransferWise has issued more than 1 million cards globally since the agreement commenced in Europe in 2018.Consumer satisfaction with credit card issuers is plummeting as the Covid-19 pandemic …

Payments provider Blackhawk Network Inc. said it is working with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to distribute a total of $25 million in aid on 50,000 prepaid cards to health-care professionals battling Covid-19. The money was donated by Facebook Inc.Payroll-services provider PayActiv Inc. said its study of usage data from a sample …

While the Covid-19 pandemic has raised the issue of speeding stimulus payments and other relief to consumers and businesses, The Federal Reserve system is staying with its planned 2023 or 2024 launch date for its FedNow real-time payment service, officials said Thursday in an update that comes almost exactly one …

With consumers flocking to e-commerce during the Covid-19 pandemic, net product sales for Amazon.com Inc. totaled $50.2 billion the June quarter, up 40% year-over-year. Sales at its physical stores dropped 13% to $3.8 billion.China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest retail market this year, eMarketer Inc. predicted in its “Global …

Peer-to-peer payments networks like Zelle were introduced as a means for consumers to pay each other, but business acceptance now appears to be ramping up along with consumer usage in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Seven major financial institutions are now enabling property owners, home-services companies, and other small …

The global retail-payment networks Mastercard and Visa are on a tear, acquiring and investing in adjacent payment-opportunity space in networks that can leverage and reinforce their existing franchises.  Their traditional payment schemes are dominant worldwide and near indestructible. While for the foreseeable future they could grow on autopilot, to their …

The FIS-Worldpay merger not only created a processing behemoth, it set the stage for an operation with diverse revenue streams that can withstand shocks like Covid-19. A year later, the FIS/Worldpay merger—one of three giant processor combinations in 2019—appears to be reaping the promised benefits. If a company that created …