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Block offers Apple tap-to-pay for merchants

Block wants to attract more business clientele as fintech firms experience economic volatility. Offering tap-to-pay on the iPhone advances that goal.

Economic pressures stress payment fintechs

PayPal, Klarna and Bolt have chopped their workforces in the face of mushrooming macro-economic pressures, suggesting a potential fintech shakeout in the offing.

Stripe's legal ops chief aims to curb spending

The digital payments company’s legal team hopes to introduce more alternative fee structures to help gain more balance in outside law firm costs. 

Klarna taps Marqeta for card

The partnership comes as buy now-pay later providers seek to expand their customer bases amid market volatility and regulatory pressure.

NMI aims to equip banks with modern payments tech

As banks try to fend off competition from fintechs in merchant acquiring and processing, payments gateway NMI aims to capitalize by offering to bolster their services.

BNPL extends to gas, groceries

Buy now-pay later providers have made their financing services more available for everyday purchases, offering consumers a tool to deal with inflation.

Visa's CEO braces for legislation

Visa CEO Al Kelly said Sen. Dick Durbin is contemplating new legislation that would impose more pricing restrictions on the card industry. Kelly didn't elaborate and Durbin has been mum.

Cross-border payments change as they rise: report

Consumers and businesses are more frequently using digital means to send payments around the world, according to Mastercard's second annual report on cross-border payments.

JPMorgan hires exec from PayPal to head fintech partnerships

Peggy Mangot joined the bank this month to lead a team responsible for designing and developing fintech partnership strategy at JPMorgan Chase's commercial bank.

Adyen targets North America for growth

Upstart Dutch payments processor Adyen is increasing its competition against FIS, Fiserv and Stripe on their home turf in the U.S.

Dollar General piloting self-checkout-only stores

The test will involve about 200 of the discount retailer's 18,000-plus locations and run throughout 2022, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Owen said Thursday during an earnings call.

CBDC, stablecoins, commercial bank money can coexist, Brainard says

The Federal Reserve vice chair, at a House Financial Services Committee hearing Thursday, also called for stricter regulation in the stablecoin space.

Mastercard touts ESG strategy

Pursuing environmental, social and governance goals offers advantages in forging customer relationships and luring talent amid a tight labor market, a Mastercard executive said. 

Chip shortage drives up card costs

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is affecting card chip prices because Ukraine is home to two companies that produce half of the world’s neon supply, a key ingredient in chips.

Crypto ad spend plummets as market crashes

The cryptocurrency market downturn has led marketing spend in this sector to plunge, especially after unprecedented highs seen during Super Bowl LVI.

Weave teams with Sunbit for healthcare BNPL

With Sunbit, Weave can now add BNPL to its other services that help small businesses collect customers’ payments, including text to pay, digital wallets, wireless terminals and credit-card on file.

CFPB recasts innovation office to emphasize competition

The bureau walked back its no-action letter and sandbox policies in favor of "incubation events" meant to troubleshoot barriers to innovation and help customers switch providers more easily.

CBDC poses threat to banks, trade groups tell Fed

A U.S. digital dollar would take $720 billion in deposits out of banks even if the central bank were to cap accounts at $5,000 per "end user," the American Bankers Association wrote in a letter.

Lower-income app users seek savings options

Low- and moderate-income households in the U.S. say they want savings products in their digital payment apps, a survey by the nonprofit Commonwealth revealed.

CEOs Sound Off: BNPL takes aim at healthcare, legal costs

Companies offering installment payment options for healthcare, legal and auto repair say that buy now-pay later options will satisfy growing consumer demand.

Klarna revamps operations, cuts 700 employees

Klarna, a major buy now-pay later player and Europe's highest value fintech, has "re-evaluated" its business and made "really tough decisions" that include cutting 10% of its workforce, the CEO said.

Tag Heuer accepts crypto as payment

CEO Frédéric Arnault suggested cryptocurrency fluctuations are a risk companies will need to take on if they allow this form of payment.

Billtrust to stay on acquisition streak

Billtrust, which focuses on the accounts receivable side of B2B payments, has acquired two European companies in recent months and plans to continue snapping up other firms.

Big tech pushes passwordless for payments

Google, Microsoft and Apple this month began a big, new push in their campaign for a passwordless standard that's aimed at improving digital identity verification, including for payments.

Albertsons expands smart cart pilot

The carts act like self-checkout machines, with the computer vision system and barcode-scanner logging the products a customer tosses into the cart.

Updated May 20, 2022