With digital commerce showing huge potential, it’s time for payments players to take this virtual world seriously. Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), extended reality, mixed reality, Web 3.0, blockchain—all of these concepts have been lumped together into the term “metaverse.” And a lot of other terms …

Increasing issuance of contactless cards, along with stronger demand from instant-issuance platforms, are generating tailwinds for at least one of the companies that produce payment cards. CPI Card Group Inc. early Monday cited these factors in reporting record sales for the June quarter, leading top executives at the Littleton, Colo.-based …

American Express Co. launched American Express Global Pay, a digital payment service to enable U.S. businesses to make domestic and international business-to-business payments. Eligible U.S. AmEx Small Business cardholders can fund payments from their business bank accounts to suppliers in more than 40 countries with a dozen currencies.RevoluGroup Canada Inc., a payments-technology provider, …

Despite a persistent shortage of microchips, global shipments of contactless cards hit the 2-billion mark for the first time in 2021, totaling 2.63 billion for the year, according to the Smart Payment Association, a Munich-based trade group.  Propelling the surge was the shipment of an additional 269 million contactless cards …

Looking to add a new twist on buy now, pay later loans, provider Splitit Payments Ltd. Tuesday announced a new BNPL-style loan that will leverage a consumer’s open-to-buy on their payment cards to pre-qualify them for an installment loan at the point-of-sale. To qualify for the loan, merchants run a pre-authorization …

Agencies that work with vendors on innovation and service will get more of both. Word on the street is that some transit agencies are choosing to opt for more modular approaches when it comes to their transit-payment systems, picking and choosing different vendors for different parts of their systems. Agencies …

To help its card-issuing clients keep pace with evolving risk-management and compliance issues, virtual-card issuing platform Marqeta Inc. on Thursday introduced RiskControl, a suite of risk-management, fraud-mitigation, and compliance tools it says are aimed at allowing issuers on its platform to get ahead of fraud and streamline their risk and …

The Famous Dave’s chain of barbeque restaurants has chosen Presto as its exclusive provider of pay-at-table technology. The chain, which operates more than 150 locations, is a unit of BBQ Holdings Inc.Payments provider Fortis announced an integration with the Oracle Payment Interface for its hospitality and retail segments. The integration is expected to ease …

Underscoring the rising profile of open banking in consumers’ financial lives, Green Dot Corp. early Tuesday said it has completed an integration for its GO2bank mobile banking app with the Plaid Exchange network from Plaid Inc. The move will connect users of Green Dot’s app, launched only in January last …

Financial institutions have been cooperating with fintechs for years on data exchanges. But now banks need to get on the receiving end, says Sarah Grotta. Conceptually, open banking is a straightforward premise. Consumers allow their financial institution to share specific financial data electronically and securely with authorized third parties. Access …