“PayPal CEO Dan Schulman told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday that use of the company’s buy now, pay later option surged on Black Friday. In an interview on “Mad Money,” Schulman said PayPal’s installment payment service is “one of the stars, actually, of the holiday season for us.”   “During Black Friday, our volume on buy now, pay later was up almost 400% year over year. We did some 750,000 transactions alone in one day on Black Friday,” Schulman said, referring to the day after Thanksgiving that’s a key part of the holiday shopping season.”

“Bangalore-based fintech startup Simpl has raised $40 million as it looks to expand its online buy now, pay later service’s offerings in the world’s second-largest market. Valar Ventures and IA Ventures led the six-year-old startup’s Series B round. LFH Ventures and some existing investors also participated in the round, said the startup, which has raised $83 million to date. Simpl partners with popular online brands and offers their customers the ability to make purchases without paying for them at that very moment.”

“Mercado Libre has taken out a $375 million financing line with Citi Bank to expand its credit offer to consumers, entrepreneurs, and small-sized businesses in Brazil and Mexico . During the two-year deal with Citi, Mercado Libre intends to allocate $225 million to expand its credit vertical in Brazil and $150 million for Mexico.”

“Microsoft is under fire from angry users after announcing plans for a built-in “buy now pay later” function in its Edge web browser. Such schemes let buyers divide payments into smaller chunks over time – but have been criticised for their risk of users getting into debt. Microsoft has added one provider to the checkout page of shopping sites as a default payment option. But users have accused Microsoft of greed and a “cashgrab” mentality.”

“Capital One says it is eliminating all overdraft fees for retail banking customers. It’s the largest U.S. bank yet to end the industry practice of charging customers a hefty fee, typically $25 to $35 each instance, for allowing transactions that exceed a customer’s balance, according to the McLean, Virginia-based lender.   The move will cost the bank an estimated $150 million in lost revenue per year, according to a company spokesperson.”

“Americans are applying for credit cards at a rate not seen since before the pandemic. Close to 27% of U.S. consumers said in October that they had applied for a credit card in the past 12 months, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That is the highest level since 2019 and well above the record low of 16% recorded a year ago.”

“Keeping Abreast With Developments on the Continent The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) has started preparations for its digital currency to ensure the country is not left behind others in adopting central bank digital currencies (CBDC), a Bloomberg report has said. The announcement follows reports that Zanzibar — an autonomous Tanzanian region off the coast of East Africa — is also keen on adopting digital currencies. The move by the BOT, which was confirmed by governor Florens Luoga, also comes almost a month after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) became the first central bank on the continent to launch a CBDC.”

“ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading global provider of real-time digital payment software and solutions , today announced it is extending its partnership with PayPoint , the leading provider of innovative technology and payment services, to drive modernization of its payments business. PayPoint , a long-standing customer, will utilize ACI Acquiring , a secure and scalable solution to deliver digital innovation and capabilities to accept both traditional and alternative payment methods .”

“Fundbox , the AI-powered financial platform for small businesses, announced it has closed a $100M Series D funding round at a valuation of $1.1 billion. This latest round was led by Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), joined by existing investors Allianz X, Khosla Ventures, and The Private Shares Fund, and brought in new investors including Arbor Waypoint Select Fund and a suite of BNY Mellon funds managed by Newton Investment Management North America.”

“Thunes , a Singapore-headquartered global payments company, today announced a partnership with Brazil’s Bexs Banco (“Bexs”), a pioneer in international digital payments, to help global businesses and customers make real-time payments to Brazil, including payments to Pix, the instant payment system developed by Brazil’s Central Bank. With this partnership, Brazilian recipients will be able to enjoy increased speed and transparency of inbound transactions processed by Thunes. Those using Pix will receive payments instantly.”

“Wise , the global technology company building the best way to move money around the world, today announced a 2022 North American expansion plan that will see the company hire more than 150 people; expand its U.S.-based operations to Austin, Texas; and, move its New York City headquarters office to a new, larger location.”

“The world is moving at a faster pace with globalization being fuelled by technology which is enabling companies to scale beyond borders at a pace of months as opposed to years previously. In this context, Mastercard is collaborating with Meta to support the digitization and growth of SMEs across the MEA region by organizing a training webinar that will provide SMEs insights from industry experts, and a masterclass on how to manage uncertainty from renowned author and academic Nathan Furr, Associate Professor of Strategy at INSEAD. The event takes place on Wednesday, 8 December at 14.00 Gulf Standard Time.”

“Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) announced today that it is changing its name to Block. Block will be the name for the company as a corporate entity. The Square name has become synonymous with the company’s Seller business, which provides an integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions, business software, and banking services for sellers, and this move allows the Seller business to own the Square brand it was built for.”

“PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL ) today announced that Wix (Nasdaq: WIX ) merchants can offer PayPal Pay in 4* and PayPal Credit** through a dedicated Pay Later checkout button, as well as present Pay in 4 messaging earlier in the shopping journey. With many businesses expressing optimism this holiday season, PayPal Pay Later solutions provide Wix eCommerce merchants in the U.S. with another way to help maximize this all-important time of year.”

“PSCU , the nation’s premier payments credit union service organization (CUSO), has announced that New England Federal Credit Union (NEFCU) has joined the cooperative for credit and debit card processing support and services. Headquartered in Williston, Vt., NEFCU is committed to promoting and improving members’ economic well-being and helping guide them to strong financial decisions using leading solutions.”

“WhatsApp (FB.O) has won regulatory approval to double the number of users on its payments service in India to 40 million, a source with direct knowledge told Reuters on Friday. The company had requested that there should be no cap on users of its payment service in India. Instead, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) this week told the company it could double the user base to which it can offer its payment service – currently restricted to 20 million – the source said.”

“With defaults on buy now, pay later loans on the rise, BNPL providers need to be cognizant that creating a flexible repayment plan can not only help improve recovery rates, but help retain delinquent customers by providing a better customer experience during the collection phase, says a study from digital debt-collection agency TrueAccord.  The latter is important, as BNPL providers are slugging it out to attract and retain new customers. Over the past 12 months, the typical BNPL customer used up to six different BNPL providers .”

“The New York Federal Reserve launched a new innovation center on Monday that will support the central bank as it explores the possibility of a digital currency, assesses the financial risks associated with climate change and tackles other issues such as financial market infrastructure and regulation. The center, in partnership with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, will help the central bank improve the current payments system, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in remarks prepared for a virtual event on Monday.”

“The UK’s financial regulator the Financial Conduct Authority is looking to scrap a key open banking rule requiring users to reauthenticate access to customer accounts every 90 days.  While the growth of open banking in the UK has been well documented, many industry insiders have longed said the ‘90 rule’, which seeks to maintain and protect users’ permissions, has been a drag on the adoption of open banking. This is because of the added friction for users needing to re-apply the permissions.”

“…Intuitively, a technology that allows one person to send money to another without an intermediary could make remittances quicker and cheaper. There are still huge barriers, from the wild volatility of many cryptocurrencies to the complexities of buying them in one country and then converting them back to traditional cash in another. Bitso, a Mexico City-based crypto trading platform, says it’s making a dent. It estimates it’s helping money transmitters move around 2.5% of the more than $40 billion in remittances flowing across the border from the U.S. to Mexico annually.”

“Bolt , a leading checkout and shopper network company, today announced that it has acquired Tipser, the Swedish-based tech company enabling commerce on any digital surface, to realize their shared vision of enabling shoppers to check out immediately at the point of discovery.”

“Shinhan Bank , the leading bank in South Korea, today announced that it has completed the development of a proof-of-concept, with a global megabank outside of Korea, built on the Hedera network, leveraging stablecoins and focused on international remittances. Utilizing the Hedera Token Service (HTS) and Hedera Consensus Service (HCS), the project aims to test the issuance and distribution of stablecoins, applied to a financial use case that typically suffers from high fees, longer waits, and the absence of tracking features.”

“Flutterwave , Africa’s leading payments technology company, is pleased to announce the launch of its new e-commerce service, Flutterwave Market – an extension of its Flutterwave Store service – that will bring together a collection of merchant stores in one place. Flutterwave Market brings e-commerce a step closer to the brand’s merchants and their customers. The aim of the new Flutterwave Market is to help merchants reach new customers and ultimately increase sales and revenue. This will not only make it easier for customers to shop from a range of Flutterwave Store merchants, but will also enable customers to seamlessly shop across a variety of products from different businesses at their convenience.”

“Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the banking software company, announced Temenos Exchange, a new Fintech marketplace to bring open banking innovation to market faster, and at scale. The new marketplace will offer pre-integrated and certified Fintech solutions that can be easily deployed within the Temenos Banking Cloud, enabling banks to accelerate the creation of new financial services, while reducing the costs of development.”

“Visa Inc (V.N) has complained to the U.S. government that India’s “informal and formal” promotion of domestic payments rival RuPay hurts the U.S. giant in a key market, memos seen by Reuters show. In public Visa has downplayed concerns about the rise of RuPay, which has been supported by public lobbying from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that has included likening the use of local cards to national service.”

“Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, has acquired crypto wallet firm BRD, according to Coinbase, which did not disclose the terms of the deal…Launched in 2014 with a focus on decentralization, security and customer-controlled funds, BRD now has over 10 million global customers, according to a website post from co-founders Adam Traidman and Aaron Voisine. The duo said that BRD wallet customers will be able to continue to transact normally, though users will eventually “have an optional migration path to self custody with Coinbase Wallet , which will include a special gift.””

“Slice , which was valued at under $200 million in a financing round in June this year, has raised $220 million that values it at over $1 billion, the startup said on Monday….Slice has established itself as one of the market leading card-issuing firms in India. The startup offers a number of cards that are aimed at tech-savvy young professionals in the country. “These users have been on Instagram and Snapchat for years,” said Bajaj of Slice customers in an interview with TechCrunch.”

“Alice Deng and Lawrence Murata were working at artificial intelligence companies when they found inspiration from their respective family’s businesses to create Slope , which enables businesses an easy way to offer buy now, pay later services…Businesses can get approved in seconds and begin offering the installments. At checkout, customers can choose the payment terms that work for them. Slope manages the lending, underwriting and any debt collection, and will pay out to the business once the product or service ships.”

“Deutsche Bank is launching SWIFT’s new beneficiary account validation service for cross-border payments.The bank, which is the first to roll out SWIFT’S new account pre-validation service worldwide, says that BAV will enable clients to verify payee account details before an international payment instruction is sent.The technology is aimed at minimising the risk of payment failure due to incorrect data, removing a key point of friction in cross-border transactions.”

“Indonesian super app Gojek has allowed users with verified GoPay account to open Bank Jago accounts directly from its app. The move completes the integration between the two firms, which kicked off with Bank Jago being accepted as a cashless payment method on the Gojek app in July this year.”

“As more Americans are expected to purchase gifts through buy now, pay later services this holiday season, the nation’s consumer finance watchdog can turn to tools in existing law to soften the edges of the largely unsupervised industry. Despite calls for specific new regulations, buy now, pay later businesses—which boomed in popularity since the start of the pandemic—already must abide by federal and state fair lending, credit reporting, and anti-money laundering laws. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s pending payday lending rule could also be invoked.”

“Buy now, pay later operator Zip is introducing a mobile-based virtual card, enabling UK shoppers to tap and pay for their purchases at the checkout. Following an initial launch in Australia and New Zealand, Tap and Pay with Zip is being rolled out nationwide across the UK in time for the festive shopping season, starting first in Homebase, The Fragrance Shop, Jollyes – The Pet People, and Hype clothing.”

“The ‘buy now, pay later’ credit industry would benefit from more regulation to help standardise an increasingly crowded market, the chief executive of US consumer lender Affirm has told the Financial Times. BNPL soared in popularity during the pandemic by offering customers the option of paying for online shopping in instalments. This has helped fintechs such as Affirm report triple digit per cent growth in balance sheet assets while many traditional lenders have struggled to expand their loan books.”

“Debit cards have become the preferred payment method among Millennials and Gen Zers for online purchases and for use in digital wallets. A recent Carat Insights Report from Fiserv Inc. reveals that 59% of Millennials and Gen Zers use debit online because they prefer the financial control debit cards provide over their finances. Overall, 48% of consumers say they prefer using a debit card when making a purchase online, compared to 36% preferring credit and 11% favoring digital wallets.”

“The Federal Reserve Board may be mulling a digital dollar, but U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr. has cash on his mind. He was so concerned about stores not accepting cash that he introduced the Payment Choice Act to preserve the right of Americans to pay in cash and to bar merchants from rejecting it. He first introduced the bill in 2019 and reintroduced it this past July.”

“For Andrew Kaplan, the chief digital and banking as a service officer at New York Community Bancorp, the reasons to make his bank the first to mint a new stablecoin called USDF were clear. The bank has begun working with Figure Technologies to issue a stablecoin, a digital asset that is always equal to a U.S. dollar, that runs on a blockchain Figure developed called Provenance. As lenders and investors buy and sell loans and other assets on Provenance, the use of the USDF stablecoin lets them settle those transactions instantly. New York Community Bank and Figure hope other banks will join their network, and also issue and honor the stablecoin.”

“BOB Financial Solutions Limited (BFSL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of Baroda (BoB), has partnered with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch BoB Credit Cards (Easy and Premier variants) on the RuPay platform. Launched on the JCB network, both cards support global acceptance. These cards come with various attractive benefits for the customers such as 5X Reward Points in selected merchant categories, fuel surcharge waiver, pre and post purchase EMI offers, up to 3 complimentary add-on credit cards for family members and several exciting merchant offers enabled both by BFSL and NPCI.”

“Mexico is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, yet its local businesses still struggle to access credit without exorbitant fees and tedious paperwork. Mastercard, the world’s leading payments company, and Jeeves, the preferred financial partner for Mexican businesses, have partnered together to solve this issue by launching the first physical card that allows companies to pay in any local currency from all countries Mastercard currently operates.”

“The Federal Reserve Bank of New York today launched the New York Innovation Center (NYIC) , to advance a strategic partnership with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub . As part of the New York Fed, the NYIC is collaborating with the Federal Reserve System, the BIS Innovation Hub, and public and private sector experts to validate, design, build, and launch new financial technology products and services for the central bank community.”

“Shoppers drove U.S. retail sales during Thanksgiving weekend up +14.1% year-over-year and +5.8% compared to 2019, excluding auto. According to Mastercard SpendingPulse ™, which measures overall retail sales across all payment types including cash and check, in-store sales rebounded, increasing +16.5% YOY while e-commerce sales experienced sustained growth up +4.9% YOY for the weekend running Friday, November 26 through Sunday, November 28.”

“Today, Interac Corp. announced an agreement with Microsoft to use Microsoft Azure’s cloud capabilities to securely manage the continued growth of digital transactions, enabling greater innovation and ultimately faster payments. As a central leader in Canada’s payments ecosystem, Interac has seen a surge in demand for its solutions and requires a trusted, reliable and secure cloud platform to support ongoing innovation and product development. During the pandemic the company processed almost one billion Interac® e-Transfer transactions sent since the beginning of April 2020.”

“Payment giant Visa has made a strategic investment in Basiq – a Sydney-based start-up that captures bank data for fintechs – in a move that points to payments and broader data sources being combined to improve digital services across the economy. Visa joins National Australia Bank and Westpac’s venture capital fund Reinventure Group, and big US software players Salesforce and Plaid, as investors in Basiq, which sits between more than 100 banks and around 200 fintechs.”

“The Bank for International Settlements is opening a consultation on the propsect of extending and aligning payment system operating hours to improve cross-border payments. The consultative report from the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) focuses on the operating hours of real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems.The CPMI says an extension of RTGS operating hours across jurisdictions could help address current obstacles, thereby increasing the speed of cross-border payments and reducing liquidity costs and settlement risks.”

“While many retailers are looking to offer financial services, the reverse is also true: fintechs are also moving towards e-commerce. The reason lies in the quest for retention and recurrence. In other words: it is not enough to have a digital account, the user has to engage. With this in mind, Nubank announced this Tuesday the launch of a shopping section with different shops, also marking the digital bank’s entry into e-commerce. The move is similar to the one recently made by another digital bank, Inter, which this year launched the InterShop marketplace within the app.”

“Consumers in the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts in the US will soon be able to make in-store and online purchases and carry out person-to-person transactions using a digital version of the BerkShares local currency. Users of the digital BerkShare will be able to download a mobile app, link it to their bank account and then transfer funds to set up and load a digital wallet with the currency which they can use to make purchases at the 400 businesses currently supporting BerkShares in paper form.”

“The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has published a white paper that explores potential technical and design options for issuing and distributing retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and proposes a two-tier system as “one possible design” for a digital HK dollar or e-HKD. The 50-page e-HKD: A Technical Perspective white paper represents “the first step of our technical exploration for the e-HKD” and forms part of a wider study into both technical and policy considerations that “aims to come up with an initial view by the middle of next year,” the HKMA says.”

“A consortium of roughly 70 Japanese firms, including the country’s three mega-banks, said it aims to launch a yen-based digital currency in fiscal 2022 after beginning trials in coming months. The digital currency, tentatively called “DCJPY”, will be backed by bank deposits and use a common platform to speed up large-scale fund transfers and settlement among companies, Kazuhiro Tokita, chief executive of cryptocurrency exchange DeCurret which is leading the consortium, said at a news conference on Wednesday.”

“The Indian government is still seeking to ban most cryptocurrencies under a long-awaited cryptocurrencies bill that will be submitted for consideration at Parliament’s so-called “Winter Session” this year. According to a bulletin posted on Lok Sabha, the Indian parliament’s official website, The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, aims to create a framework that would facilitate the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).”

“Mastercard (NYSE: MA) today announced it has acquired Arcus FI, an alum of the company’s Start Path program, to help support the delivery of bill pay solutions and other real-time payment applications across Latin America. With offices in New York and Mexico City, Arcus helps to enable bill pay and cash-in, cash-out services for some of the biggest billers, retailers, fintechs and traditional financial institutions in the U.S. and Mexico, with expansion into Latin America. Its flagship solution, the Arcus Pay Network, has access to the largest retailers and direct connection with many of the largest billers in Mexico.”

“Afterpay (ASX:APT), the leader in “Buy Now, Pay Later” payments, today announced its subscription solution – giving U.S. consumers the ability to pay for their favorite recurring purchases in installments.  Merchants including IPSY, BoxyCharm, Savage X Fenty and Fabletics will be amongst the first to offer Afterpay’s subscription payments, which will be available to customers early next year.”

“Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ), the global modern card issuing platform, Mastercard (NYSE: MA), a leader in global payments, and Paycast (an SPG Company), the marketplace payment engine, announced today a collective partnership to power and launch a digital card product to offer faster and more convenient ways for marketplace sellers to get paid and do business. Specialising in high-value and time-sensitive transactions, Paycast enables marketplaces to hold funds in escrow between buyers and sellers until the conditions of sale have been verified. The ability for marketplace sellers to access these funds immediately on a virtual card provides more choice and a modern experience for accessing proceeds quickly and securely.”

“The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today published a letter confirming that national banks and federal savings associations must demonstrate that they have adequate controls in place before they can engage in certain cryptocurrency, distributed ledger, and stablecoin activities.”

“Collison’s comments come after a Bloomberg report said that Stripe was in early talks with investment banks about going public as early as next year. Collison said the firm has plans to expand across the Persian Gulf, which includes countries like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Stripe already has clients from $7.5 billion food delivery firm Deliveroo to a small gymwear brand called Squatwolf using it to process payments in the region, he added.”

“If you’ve followed corporate card and spend management startups in the U.S., you might be familiar with Brex and Ramp . Payhawk is also offering an all-in-one financial management solution for businesses, but with a focus on European customers. And the company just raised a $112 million Series B round at a $570 million valuation.”

“With just days to go until Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Stripe has expanded its in-person payments service Terminal to Ireland, France, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. This European expansion comes two years after Stripe Terminal was made generally available in the US, letting online businesses extend their Stripe capability to accept in-person payments.”

“The publication of the U.S. Treasury report, “Report on Stablecoin” (RoS), earlier this month is an “indication of urgency” for the regulation of stablecoins, given their potential to become a viable payments method, Bank of America said in a research note published on Tuesday.”

“Cash is disappearing from the U.K. economy, a Bank of England official said in building the case for a new form of digital currency backed by the government. The central bank’s Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said that technology including the internet and the popularity of credit and debit cards are reducing the role cash played in transactions. Authorities, he said, will have to adapt to keep some sort of state-backed money prominent in the financial system.”

“Blockchain startup Figure Technologies Inc. and other firms held talks with U.S. regulators about how to issue a stablecoin that satisfies watchdogs amid deep Washington skepticism over the fast-growing corner of the cryptocurrency market. Senior officials of the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. met last week with Figure and its partners in an emerging crypto effort known as the USDF Consortium, according to people familiar with the meetings who requested anonymity because the discussions were private. Spokespeople for the agencies declined to comment.”

“TruePay, a startup whose innovative payment solution helps small and medium sized retailers have free and secure access to credit, has raised US$32 million in Series A funding led by Addition. This growth stage investment is one of the largest ever made in Brazil. The funds will be used to improve the solution, increase capacity and expand the team. The startup, which has been growing 100% a month, plans to grow tenfold by the end of 2022. Founded in December 2020, TruePay has clients throughout Brazil and a merchant base in the thousands.”

“Klarna , a leading global retail bank, payments and shopping service, today announced the addition of ‘Pay Now’ to its range of payment services in the US. This will enable consumers to pay immediately and in full at any online retailer where Klarna is available, with the same seamless payment experience whether they choose to pay now or later. Additionally, the company will also very soon introduce the Klarna Card to the US market, bringing Klarna’s popular interest-free Pay in 4 service to a physical card format.”

“Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: JKHY ), a leading provider of technology solutions and payment processing services primarily for the financial services industry, announced today that its clients represent the majority of financial institutions live on The Clearing House’s RTP® network. There are currently 118 of the 177 banks and credit union live through Jack Henry’s faster payments hub, JHA PayCenter ™, plus Jack Henry has an additional 87 clients in various stages of the implementation process.”