The worldwide payments news keeps on rolling, and we’ve got a roundup to keep you current. Merchants and Amazon are upping their efforts to get lower credit card transaction fees. BNPL is gaining status and money. Acquisitions abound, 85% of mobile apps have critical vulnerabilities, and mobile commerce will double to $728 billion by 2025. So catch your breath and read on.
CFPB update places responsibility on banks for better fraud prevention
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a Compliance Aid that prevents banks from exploiting loopholes in Regulation E. Banks and other financial institutions are now liable to reimburse their customers who have fallen victim to fraud. Now, more than ever, they need to level up their biometric game and invest in fortifying one-time passwords to protect their bottom line. Read more…
Merchants redouble their efforts to push the Fed on debit’s routing and pricing rules
“Major banks and networks continue to interfere with competition for debit business,” contends a release issued early in the day from the Merchants Payments Coalition, a trade group representing supermarket, convenience store, gasoline, and other retail chains. The group’s statement calls on the Fed to follow through on a proposal that underscores merchant choice in routing debit transactions. Read more…
Real-time business payments in Canada take a giant step
Interac Corp and 13 leading Canadian financial institution members launched Interac e-Transfer for Business, providing real-time digital payments to personal and commercial bank accounts with confirmation of funds received within seconds. Recent research by Interac showed 83% of business leaders want new commercial payment options as part of their post-pandemic business recovery. Read more…
Paymentus to acquire Payveris, a leading provider of money movement solutions for FIs
Paymentus, a cloud-based bill payment technology, announced an agreement to acquire Payveris to accelerate its services to financial institutions and expand Paymentus’ Instant Payment Network. Payveris enables over 265 banks and credit unions to simplify bill pay, person-to-person (P2P), and account-to-account (A2A) money movement and fraud prevention through a unified platform. Read more…
Behalf raises $100m in debt financing to expand BNPL offering for B2B firms
New York-based fintech Behalf secured $19 million in venture funding and up to $100 million in debt financing as it looks to boost its e-commerce financing solutions. Behalf offers in-purchase B2B financing solutions such as buy now, pay later (BNPL) capabilities for US e-commerce businesses and has onboarded over 19,000 merchants and 95,000 business customers and provided over $1 billion in financing. Read more…
85% of commercial apps have ‘critical’ vulnerabilities, study finds
A new report from Osterman Research finds concerning vulnerabilities are prevalent across everyday software products, resulting from the inclusion of open-source components that frequently go unnoticed or undisclosed. According to the investigation, 100% of commercial off-the-shelf applications tested contained open-source components security vulnerabilities. What’s worse, at least 85% had at least one vulnerability the firm considered “critical.” Read more…
Mastercard outlines a strong quarter as it pursues strategies in crypto, 5G, and open banking
As they have for rival Visa Inc., transaction volumes continue to improve for Mastercard Inc. as world commerce stages its recovery from the impact of the pandemic. The improvement comes as domestic spending recovers in many of Mastercard’s global markets, and cross-border card-not-present volume remains strong. Contactless technology, meanwhile, accounted for 45% of in-person transactions globally in the quarter, up from 37% a year ago. Read more…
Amazon strikes back at Visa fees with surcharge
Retail titan Amazon is taking on Visa by imposing a surcharge in one part of the world and leaving open the possibility of extending it elsewhere to fight what it calls “Visa’s high cost of payments.” Amazon plans to impose a half-percent surcharge on all Visa credit card transactions in Singapore starting next month in its first-ever such surcharge. “The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle to providing the best prices for customers,” Amazon said. Read more…
Our journey to become a national digital currency bank
Circle intends to become a full-reserve national commercial bank, operating under the supervision and risk management requirements of the Federal Reserve, US Treasury, OCC, and the FDIC. We believe that full-reserve banking, built on digital currency technology, can lead to not just a radically more efficient but also a safer, more resilient financial system. Read more…
Mobile commerce sales will double to $728+ billion by 2025: eMarketer
M-commerce sales increased by 41.4% in 2020 and will grow another 15.2% this year, hitting $359.3 billion. M-comm is expected to almost double its share of annual US retail sales by 2025, to 10.4%—or $728+ billion. During the pandemic, 56% of American consumers used apps or mobile websites to order food (up from 36%), and 51% ordered products for pickup (up from 31%). Read more…
New A-to-z Guarantee better protects Amazon customers and sellers
Amazon is extending its A-to-z Guarantee to protect customers in the unlikely event a defective product sold through Amazon.com causes property damage or personal injury—regardless of who sells it. Amazon will directly pay customers for claims under $1,000—which account for more than 80% of cases—at no cost to sellers and may step in to pay claims for higher amounts if the seller is unresponsive or rejects a claim. Read more…
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