“Gopuff, the go-to platform for immediate delivery of consumers’ everyday needs, is now providing its U.S. delivery partners with the ability to instantly cash out their earnings balance at any time with just a few clicks. Gopuff is one of the first instant commerce businesses to offer an instant pay option for delivery partners, bringing them an even more flexible, convenient, and quick way to receive their earnings and tips. Gopuff is partnering with Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for business, and partners like Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time money movement network, to offer partners with an eligible debit card the option to cash out quicker.”

“Major crypto exchange Binance has partnered with Mastercard to launch a prepaid card for the residents of Argentina. In a Thursday announcement, Binance said the card will allow its clients in Argentina to use Bitcoin, BNB and other cryptocurrencies to make purchases as well as ATM withdrawals in fiat wherever Mastercard is accepted — roughly 90 million merchants globally and online. Argentine cardholders can also earn up to 8% back in cryptocurrency from certain purchases. According to Binance, the introduction of the card — expected to be “widely available in the coming weeks” — was part of the company’s efforts to further the global adoption of crypto.”

“State Farm, the largest insurer of vehicles and homes in the US, announced today the expansion of its Digital Pay solution to include claim payouts delivered instantly into a customer’s PayPal account. Through Digital Pay, claims can be reviewed, approved, and paid digitally. Customers can choose their payout method, which can be sent to a debit card, directly to the customer’s bank account, or to digital wallets, such as PayPal. When a customer opts for a digital payout, they can receive funds into their personal account in a matter of seconds. Digital Pay is enabled by Carat from Fiserv.”

“In the last 12 months, American consumers have used slightly more cash for transactions than they did at this time last year. This rise in cash usage along with a small increase in purchases and peer-to-peer payments made in-person may imply that some consumers are moving back to the way they did business prior to COVID-19. The rise in cash payments is one key finding from a recent survey the Federal Reserve Banks of San Francisco and Atlanta conducted to better understand U.S. consumers’ payment behavior. Additional key findings from the Diary of Consumer Payment Choice highlight how consumer cash preferences have changed during the pandemic: In October 2021, the average number of cash payments increased from six to seven payments per month and accounted for 20 percent of all payments, up from 19 percent in 2020 and down from 26 percent in 2019. The share of in-person purchases and person-to-person payments increased to 82 percent, up from 80 percent in 2020 and down from 87 percent in 2019. The value of cash held in a consumer’s pocket, purse, or wallet averaged $67 in 2021, compared to $76 in 2020 and $60 in 2019. The value of cash held in a consumer’s home, car, or elsewhere remained elevated at $347, compared to $299 in 2020 and $241 in 2019.”

“Small business owners will benefit from access to turnover-based finance provided by SME funder Retail Capital, along with new offerings like a mobile POS app and a financial community platform, as TymeBank bolsters business banking offering…Business customers will have access to a new offering called TymePOS, a mobile point-of-sale app that turns an NFC-enabled cellphone into a tap-and-go payment device. As a softpos solution, says the bank, TymePOS offers the best pricing in the market for merchants of this size. It also has market-leading next-day settlements for merchants (the industry standard is seven days). The app is available for download on the Google Play Store, and it will take a TymeBank Business Banking customer two minutes for app onboarding. Customers will then receive a merchant ID to start processing card payments within 24 hours.”

“Over the last few months, crypto markets have crumbled. Bitcoin has lost two-thirds of its value since last November, Ethereum’s fallen by three quarters, and others have collapsed altogether. You might think that their plummeting value would make cryptocurrencies less attractive to criminals. However, according to reports from both the UK and the US, the number of cryptocurrency scams is actually on the rise…in the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warned last month that consumers reported losing more than $1 billion to fraud involving cryptocurrencies between January 2021 and March 2022. Here, the median amount lost was $2,600.”

“When customers think of ATMs, they typically think of a device at a bank. However, ATMs also have a large presence in retailers ranging from big box stores like Walmart to small family-owned gas stations. Typically these retail ATMs have had fewer features than bank ATMs, but that may be changing. ATM Marketplace reached out via an email interview to Brad Nolan, EVP and CMO at Hyosung America, to learn more about how the market is changing…For new deployments Hyosung has also launched the Series X Metakiosk — a cash-in/cash-out device that is purpose build for payments, crypto, gaming and more. It has a large immersive touchscreen, barcode scanner, NFC reader, ticket-in, ticket-out and more.”

“SpecTrust announced today that it will now be doing business as Spec. Founded in 2020, Spec built the first no-code platform to help enterprises fight fraud and abuse on their own websites and platforms. “Spec better aligns with our vision to unite teams on a single platform for delivering powerful, frictionless, and secure digital experiences. Trust architects with deep experience operating at web scale have built our Trust Cloud, but teams beyond fraud & security have found meaningful ways to use our platform,” says CEO and co-founder Nate Kharrl. Spec also announced the extension of its Trust Cloud functionality with a highly-requested feature called Insights. This feature automatically highlights trends in site visitor behavior such as account takeover attempts, failed authentication challenges, repeat refund requests, abandoned checkouts, and other customer-specific concerns. Using Insights, Spec’s customers can easily isolate and investigate emergent attack patterns or reduce unnecessary friction for trusted users.”

“Wirex, a leading crypto and payments ecosystem, has expanded the Wirex Credit program to new regions and developed additional features. Their crypto-back credit lines are now available to UK users and has added WXT as a token to be used as collateral. Having launched last month on the Wirex app, Wirex Credit has become a hugely popular option for users wanting to easily and quickly borrow crypto-backed credit lines of up to $100,000. Wirex Credit is currently available to users in Europe and Asia and with today’s announcement, for UK customers as well.”

“Goldman Sachs said that its credit-card business is being investigated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over a range of billing and payments practices. The bank disclosed the probe in a quarterly filing on Thursday, saying that regulators were examining its “account management practices, including with respect to the application of refunds, crediting of nonconforming payments, billing error resolution, advertisements, and reporting to credit bureaus.”  While New York-based Goldman made no mention of its partnership with tech giant Apple in the filing, most of the bank’s $11.84 billion in card loans through the second quarter were from the Apple Card.”

“As parents and caregivers seek reading resources for children as they head back to school, global branded payments provider Blackhawk Network and Vooks, the world’s first ad-free SVOD streaming platform bringing children’s storybooks to life through animation and read-along narration, have teamed up to expand the streaming platform’s digital gift card program, making it easy to give the gift of reading. The partnership leverages Blackhawk’s expansive network to make Vooks’ digital gift cards available on Giftcards.com, Giftcardmall.com and in select online gift card malls at leading retailers nationwide.”

“EU antitrust regulators have asked app developers whether Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit Google’s threat to remove apps from its Play Store if they use other payment options instead of its own billing system has hurt their business, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Critics say fees charged by Google and Apple (AAPL.O) at their mobile app stores are excessive and cost developers collectively billions of dollars a year, a sign of the two companies’ monopoly power…The U.S. tech giant has said apps would be removed from its app store starting June this year if developers do not use its billing system.”

“The holy grail of cross-border payments is a solution allowing cross-border payments to be immediate, cheap, universal, and settled in a secure settlement medium. The search for such a solution is as old as international commerce and the implied need to pay. This paper describes current visions how to eventually find this holy grail within the next decade, namely through (i) modernized correspondent banking; (ii) emerging cross-border FinTech solutions; (iii) Bitcoin; (iv) global stablecoins; (v) interlinked instant payment systems with FX conversion layer; (vi) interlinked CBDC with FX conversion layer. Foreach, settlement mechanics are explained, and an assessment is provided on its potential to be the holy grail of cross-border payments. Several solutions are suitable for improving cross-border payments significantly, and some could even be the holy grail.”

“After 13 years, at least three crashes, dozens of scams and Ponzi schemes and hundreds of billions of dollars made and evaporated, cryptocurrencies finally have the full attention of Congress, whose lawmakers and lobbyists have papered Capitol Hill with proposals on how to regulate the industry. The latest bipartisan proposal came Wednesday from Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and John Boozman, R-Ark. It would hand the regulatory authority over Bitcoin and Ether to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. Stabenow and Boozman lead the Senate Agriculture Committee, which has authority over CTFC.”

“Americans are piling up credit card debt as they struggle to keep up with the high cost of living. US household debt surpassed $16 trillion for the first time ever during the second quarter, the New York Federal Reserve said Tuesday. Even as borrowing costs surge, the NY Fed said credit card balances increased by $46 billion last quarter. Over the past year, credit card debt has jumped by $100 billion, or 13%, the biggest percentage increase in more than 20 years. Credit cards typically charge high interest rates when balances aren’t fully paid off, making this an expensive form of debt.  The NY Fed said the credit card binge at least partly reflects inflation as prices rise at the fastest pace in more than four decades.”

“Nayax Ltd., a global commerce enablement and payments platform designed to help merchants scale their business, today announced the launch of CoinBridge – a unique solution for the conversion of virtual assets, including customer rewards, points, gift cards, vouchers, cashback, payout, and others to real currency at any shop or website which accepts credit cards, worldwide. CoinBridge’s initial focus is on the retail and loyalty club markets, offering a groundbreaking solution for increasing their consumers’ financial freedom and satisfaction by enabling the redemption of rewards, points, and gift cards at any store or website, worldwide, without the need for any sort of integration with merchants or points of sale.”

“Open Payment Network (OPN) and North American Banking Company (NABC) today announced the capability to deliver instant payments to and from any financial institution on The Clearing House’s Real Time Payment (TCH-RTP) network through NABC’s ExcheQ application. By leveraging OPN’s certified interoperability with TCH-RTP, NABC can offer customers more payment options along with the payment speed for which ExcheQ is known. Leveraging OPN’s interoperability with the TCH-RTP network, financial institutions can gain access to all of the other financial institutions on the RTP Network. Using OPN’s open API, financial institutions can easily create custom instant payment applications for their customers and rely on OPN to power those solutions across the RTP network.”

“Splitit announced letus has selected Splitit to bring its Installments-as-a-Service to its cloud payment platform for the property rental market, allowing tenants to pay expenses in several interest-free installments on their credit card.   The collaboration brings a first-of-its-kind payment option to letus’s award-winning cloud payment platform for property managers and owners. Tenants can spread the costs of expenses such as rent or security deposits over several monthly installments on their preferred credit cards with no additional interest charges.”

“Attentive, the conversational commerce platform, today announced the launch of our text-to-buy solution with Shop Pay, enabling consumers to make purchases directly from an SMS conversation with a brand. Built with Shopify’s Shop Pay checkout flow, Attentive’s text-to-buy solution is designed to turn browsers into buyers with a frictionless checkout flow built for mobile devices. Attentive is removing steps from a brand’s SMS subscriber’s path to purchase. A consumer can now purchase directly in response to a promotional text message from a brand, without having to navigate a website or a checkout page. Currently, mobile conversation rates are more than 60% lower than desktop rates. Attentive will deliver frictionless buying experiences, catered to the shopper’s interests based on their browsing and spending patterns – all within a text message.”

“The tumbling valuations of consumer-facing “buy now, pay later” companies in public and private markets suggest investors are losing confidence in the sector. Who can blame them, in a tottering economy? But some investors are still bullish on pay-later — if the customers are other businesses. Business-to-business “buy now, pay later” startups are on the rise, and it’s clear why. Statista estimates that the global business payments market is $125 trillion, while the global consumer payments market is only $52 trillion. The average ticket size is significantly higher among businesses than consumers, allowing payments companies to command larger fees. Proponents say breaking up business payments over time promises more growth potential, a quicker path to profitability and less risk than catering to retail consumers.”

“U.S. payments firm PayPal has registered as an electronic systems operator in Indonesia and its customers can now access its services, the company said on Wednesday. PayPal was one of several websites that Indonesia blocked at the weekend because of their failure to comply with new licensing rules. Companies were given a July deadline to register under new rules that would allow authorities to compel platforms to disclose data of certain users and take down content deemed unlawful or that “disturbs public order” within four hours if urgent, and 24 hours if not.”

“Leaders of a Senate committee are set to propose legislation that would assign oversight of the two largest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ether, to the federal agency that regulates milk futures and interest-rate swaps. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) and top-ranking Republican John Boozman of Arkansas, are planning to introduce a bill Wednesday that would empower the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate spot markets for digital commodities, a newly created asset class. Currently the CFTC has authority to police derivatives, such as futures and swaps, rather than underlying commodities. (subscription required)”

“Apple has added Apple Pay support to third-party browsers in recent betas of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16. The added support, spotted by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser, marks a change from iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 and earlier, where in-browser ‌Apple Pay‌ is exclusively available in Safari. Moser found that ‌Apple Pay‌ is available in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome as of iOS 16 developer beta 4, and other users have noticed ‌Apple Pay‌ support in Mozilla Firefox. Moser noted that ‌Apple Pay‌ support continues to be unavailable on the macOS versions of Edge and Chrome, presumably since they do not use WebKit, Apple’s browser engine that is mandatory for third-party browsers on iOS and iPadOS. This suggests that ‌Apple Pay‌ support is dependent on WebKit and this is the location of any changes Apple has made to expand support for ‌Apple Pay‌.”

“It’s no secret that the technology for easy business-to-business payments has not yet caught up to its peer-to-peer counterparts, but Yaydoo thinks it has the answer. The Mexico City-based B2B software and payments company provides three products, VendorPlace , P-Card and PorCobrar, for managing cash flow, optimizing access to smart liquidity, and connecting small, midsize and large businesses to an ecosystem of digital tools.”

“FinTech startup CabbagePay has officially launched in major US cities with its goal to redefine the way money moves for all businesses, as it continues to penetrate brands, stores, websites, and apps. CabbagePay is growing rapidly due to its cost-effective payment rails and myriad use cases in all walks of industries from retail, freelancing to healthcare, finance. The company allows platforms to integrate prebuilt CabbageLink technology into mobile apps, and online stores to make payments cost-effective without ever leaving the platform’s brand experience.”

“Uber announced a series of new features Friday aimed at enhancing driver experiences on the ridesharing app as drivers continue to contend with high gas prices and inflation rates. Drivers across the U.S. will be able to see exactly how much they’ll earn and where they’re going before they accept a trip. They’ll also be able to see more than one trip request at a time by using a new feature called Trip Radar. Uber said those changes will also help lower wait times for riders.   The company also announced the Uber Pro debit card and checking account, which offer drivers up to 7% cash back on gas at select stations. Drivers’ earnings will be deposited directly into the account.”

American Express®, the leading Small Business Card issuer in the U.S.¹, today announced American Express Global Pay – a new digital solution that enables U.S. businesses to securely² make domestic and international business-to-business (B2B) payments. Through this new digital solution, business customers can send payments funded from their business bank account to their suppliers in more than 40 countries, across a range of currencies, using a simple, mobile-friendly platform. Eligible customers can also earn Membership Rewards® points on their foreign exchange payments.³ American Express Global Pay is currently available to eligible U.S. American Express Small Business Card Members.

“The ACH Network moved 7.5 billion payments in the second quarter of 2022, led by growth in Same Day ACH and business-to-business (B2B) payments. This quarter was the first in which the Same Day ACH dollar limit was $1 million per payment, following the increase on March 18, 2022. There were 185 million Same Day ACH payments transferring $486 billion in the second quarter, respective increases of 24.4% and 94.4% over the same timeframe in 2021…For the quarter overall, the ACH Network moved 7.5 billion payments, a growth of 3.5%, transferring $19.6 trillion.”

“The retail banking industry is undergoing tremendous change. A few years ago, it was a fairly straightforward business, but today, technology and innovation, increasing competition, regulatory complexity, embedded finance, consolidation, and evolving customer expectations are placing immense pressure on traditional business models. This intricate and evolving web of trends influences whom consumers trust and how they prefer to conduct their financial lives. It also forces banks to address the fundamental question of what a financial institution is—and what value it provides. For leadership teams at incumbent retail banks, now is the time to better understand these trends and prepare for a rapidly changing environment. To help, we activated our community of solvers and developed five hypothetical scenarios for how the future of the sector could play out over the next decade.  Though deliberately exaggerated, all five scenarios represent an urgent call to action for retail banks and point specifically to three priority areas where banks should act immediately and proactively to adapt: tech-powered transformation, data-enabled customer focus and broad-based trust.”

“Robinhood Markets’ cryptocurrency division was fined $30 million by New York State financial regulators after the online trading platform was accused of violating bank secrecy and anti-money laundering obligations, according to a report filed this morning. As part of the settlement, Robinhood will be required to hire an independent consultant to carry out an evaluation of the company’s compliance with the New York State Department of Financial Services’ regulations and remedy any errors that are found. Robinhood Crypto’s “significant failures” according to the state of New York include inadequately staffing a cybersecurity program within the company, not allocating sufficient resources to address cybersecurity risks, and not transitioning from a manual transaction monitoring system to one the state requires for a company of Robinhood’s size in time.”

“BUY now, pay later purchases are appearing on peoples’ credit reports with a major agency from today. TransUnion, one of the UK’s three major credit reference agencies, said lenders will be able to see how many buy now, pay later accounts somebody has and how they manage their payments… TransUnion said that the inclusion of BNPL payments on credit reports will have no “immediate effect” on credit scores. But the transactions will now appear on your credit history, meaning lenders can see when you use BNPL, how often and any missed repayments. A spokesperson that while credit scores aren’t currently affected, they could be in the future.”

“South Africa has recently seen a flood of affordable point-of-sale machines targeting small businesses. The most popular are budget wireless devices imported from abroad that allow businesses to accept credit and debit cards.  But it’s now possible to accept card payments without a card reading device, using what the industry calls Software Point of Sale, or SoftPOS. Simply by downloading free fintech apps on a compatible smartphone, merchants can accept tap-to-pay card transactions.   A handful of free mobile apps in South Africa allow this functionality, and at least two leading banks are buying into this technology as part of their merchant offerings.”

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hailed the achievement of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions crossing 6 billion in July — the highest ever since its launch six years back. According to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI reported 6.28 billion transactions worth Rs 10.62 trillion in July — an increase of 7 percent over June… In FY22, UPI processed more than 46 billion transactions amounting to over Rs 84.17 trillion, thus breaching the $1 trillion mark. UPI’s target is to process a billion transactions a day in the next five years. The UPI facility was launched on April 11, 2016, by then Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan.”

“FNB has started charging an “international payment fee” for using one of its cards to pay for popular online services like Netflix, Spotify, Steam, and YouTube Premium. Several FNB customers have complained about the fee appearing on their account statements from July, after FNB’s price changes for the 2022/2023 period came into effect. While the bank’s latest pricing guide mentioned a 2% charge on international payments, it specifically stated this was for currency conversion. However, the payments the customers had made were all rand-denominated.”

“Research released today by Up has found a quarter of Australians under 35 say Buy Now Pay Later has encouraged them to make purchases they regret, with the services evoking feelings of stress (29 per cent) and apprehension (30 per cent). More than half (57 per cent) of young Aussies say they would be interested in a savings-based alternative to BNPL, and now Up is launching just that. Introducing Maybuy – a feature encouraging customers to celebrate the joy of their purchases safely, protecting from overextension, late fees and buyer’s remorse. The latest offering to the country’s highest-rated banking app* means Up customers (known as Upsiders) can now create an automated savings plan for individual items they’ve found shopping online – dubbed a ‘Maybuy’. Once their goal is reached, they’ll be given the opportunity to purchase the item, or reconsider and keep the money they’ve put aside for something else.”

“Stolen credit card data is always a hot item for sale on the Dark Web, particularly if the package includes not just the card number but the expiration date and CVV code. To crack down on fraud, card vendors have long since turned away from stripe-only cards to those with embedded security chips that not only use encryption to secure transactions but are more difficult to clone. A recent report from cyber intelligence provider Cybersixgill looks at the current state of credit card fraud on the Dark Web. For its “Underground Financial Fraud H1 2022 report,” Cybersixgill found that more than 4.5 million stolen payment cards were up for sale on the Dark Web during the first half of 2022. Though this number is a significant drop of 68% from the more than 14 million such cards discovered during the last half of 2021, this still represents a substantial amount of fraud. Almost half (45%) of the cards for sale on underground markets were issued in the United States.”

The customer base of global fintech company, Payoneer, includes all kinds of digital businesses. From sellers on Amazon and Walmart, to freelancers on Upwork and Fiverr, and a few language service providers (LSPs) in between.

“Payoneer has a mission to be the world’s go-to partner for digital commerce everywhere,” explained Melisa Sukman Epand to the audience at the latest leg of SlatorCon Remote.

Payoneer’s Director of Social Strategy and Localization said the company understood from the start how localization was central to properly serving its customers. The company’s localization resources, which began with in-house language experts and third-party vendors, has since grown to include dedicated internal localization teams, freelance translators, and several LSPs.

“This month, both Instagram and YouTube unveiled new tools that aim to help users make sales directly on their social media platforms — removing the need to shop at a brand’s own website or retailer’s online store. With the more seamless check-out options, presumably consumers will have fewer barriers to buy, and that can lead to more sales.  On Instagram, customers can now place and track orders in direct messages, and sellers can request and receive payment in the same thread using Meta Pay…Through a new partnership with Shopify, YouTube creators can now directly link their products across their channels and content, including in livestream videos. U.S.-based users of the feature can enable onsite checkout, which can allow shoppers to make purchases directly on YouTube. To use the new shopping feature, YouTube creators must have more than 1,000 subscribers and must have their channel approved for monetization.”

“Taiwan’s financial regulator, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), is setting the ground to ban the use of credit cards for the purchase of digital currencies within its jurisdiction. As reported by Forkast, the regulator asked banks and credit card companies not to partner with cryptocurrency service providers as merchants. The FSC already issued a letter to the banking association earlier this month. The FSC highlighted that the usage of credit cards should be limited to consumption, rather than become a payment method for financial instruments and speculative trading.”

“IDEX Biometrics has launched its first biometric payment cards in Turkey in collaboration with an unnamed issuer. These cards are expected to be in consumer hands by Q1 2023. This move comes shortly after IDEX announced a partnership with card manufacturer E-Kart. It claims Turkey is one of the largest payment card markets, with 240 million cards in circulation and 1.8 million acceptance locations. IDEX develops fingerprint identification technologies that offer simple, secure and personal authentication. It claims to help people easily complete payments that are secured against their identity.”

Retail trade organizations have come out strongly in support of new legislation that would enable retailers and other merchants a choice of which companies process credit card transactions. The “Credit Card Competition Act of 2022,” introduced yesterday by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS), if passed, promises to open up the payment processing market and remove obstacles that retailers have long maintained drive up prices for them and their customers.

“Consumers who let budgeting apps or payment platforms access their banking data shouldn’t feel as “powerless” about how that information is used if a pending regulation works as planned, said the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The bureau is working to finish a long-awaited rule that would make it easier for people to share information about their bank accounts and other sensitive data that financial institutions store and protect. Opening up this data to online financial tools promises to boost competition, though it also raises risks that people’s information could be misused… Chopra called the emergence of big tech companies in the financial services arena “one of the most high stakes questions we have to confront as an industry, as regulators and as a public.” “It raises a lot of very, very pressing questions, not just about privacy, but about fair competition, transparency and consumer protection,” he told Bloomberg Law.”

“Global Payments Inc said on Monday it would buy smaller peer EVO Payments Inc. for nearly $4 billion including debt, as the fintech firm seeks to expand its footprint in the business-to-business (B2B) space. Companies such as EVO strive to digitize and streamline B2B payments which are usually more complex than business-to-consumer payments as they involve dealing with several domestic and overseas merchants.”