One of the most aggressive—and worrisome—central bank digital currency models is a proposal from law professors Morgan Ricks and John Crawford and lawyer and former regulator Lev Menand that the Fed provide direct banking “FedAccounts” to consumers and businesses. It’s intended to improve payments efficiency and reduce the number of …

Digital fiat currencies are coming. Bitcoin and the more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies it inspired have ignited the interest of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Peoples Bank of China, as well as that of private-sector players like Visa and Facebook, in digital currencies tied to dollars, euros, …

E-commerce spending in the United States surged 93% in May, compared to May 2019, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse data service.Installment-payment technology provider Splitit Payments Ltd. said it signed a multiyear deal with Mastercard Inc. to provide access to Splitit’s installment options through Mastercard’s merchant network. Split and Mastercard also plan to jointly …

Merchants in the United Kingdom won an important battle against interchange fees on Wednesday but it remains uncertain just how much that will mean to them in terms of remuneration from Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. The case also could have ramifications for similar action in the U.S. market, some …

Mastercard Inc. announced Amazon.com Inc. will start using tokens to replace actual customer card data throughout 2020. Tokenization replaces actual card data with data strings that are meaningless to outside parties. The process also permits automatic credential updating when cards expire.Payments card standards body EMVCo made it official—consumer-facing online-payment checkout options based on …

Merchant processor Square Inc. said that as of June 10 its Square Capital service had facilitated more than $820 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans to 76,000 small businesses since April 29. PPP loans are part of the federal government’s stimulus program to combat the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.In …

Merchant processor Net Element Inc. has a letter of intent to merge with Mullen Technologies Inc., a privately held startup that plans to sell Chinese-made electric sports cars in the U.S. The pending deal, announced Monday, requires Net Element to divest its payment-processing business. The so-called “reverse triangular merger” is …

American Express Co. has become the first foreign payments company to be approved to clear domestic transactions in mainland China. The move comes with approval of a network clearing license over the weekend from the People’s Bank of China for Express Technology Services Co. Ltd., an AmEx joint venture with …

It’s not yet profitable, but Bill.com Holdings Inc. must be doing something Wall Street likes. The processor, which had its initial public offering in December at $22 per share, on Wednesday announced an “upsized” follow-on offering of 7.2 million shares of common stock priced at $74.25 per share.  It was …

E-commerce sales in Signifyd’s Covid-19 Weekly Pulse Report for E-Commerce dipped 8% for the week of June 2-8 compared to the prior seven-day period. With non-essential retail opening in many states, e-commerce sales may be settling into a new natural level, the report said.Retail sales in the CardFlight Small Business Impact Report for the …