Here’s your weekly global payments news roundup, all wrapped up in one handy reading package. Juniper Research reports global remittances hit $682.6 billion in 2018 with much more on the horizon. We look closely at the growth of fake five-star reviews on Amazon and other social media and its impact on online shopping. Ten Canadian credit unions launched Google Pay for Android phones with more credit unions to follow in the new year. Our guest post from PPRO surveys the barriers to successful international payments.
In the roundup, Payoneer acquires German fintech optile in order to expand its services for business clients. eToro is planning a debit card to challenge other fintechs like Robinhood. The most popular US form of payment is still – wait for it – credit cards, for 43% of Americans. Retail Dive takes an insightful look at what the holidays may mean for department stores in the US. PayPal sues the CFPB alleging its digital wallets are not prepaid products. Finally, there’s a nostalgic look at the forces behind the death of Blockbuster. Payments industry reading that you can fit in between your weekend Christmas shopping trips.
International remittances grew 11% and big growth is ahead
Remittances are a multi-billion-dollar industry and the latest Juniper Research offers valuable insight into the size of the market, the biggest sending and receiving countries, and what’s on the horizon for remittances in the future as a result of digitization. In 2018, international remittances through formal channels totaled $682.6 billion, up from $613 billion, an 11% increase over 2017. Read more…
Five-star fakes and other phony reviews hurt Amazon and consumers
In Amazon we trust. Many online buyers check Amazon and other online product reviews and prices before purchasing online. Understandable, but are we being faked out by fake product reviews? Despite consumers’ acceptance of the value of reviews, questions persist about how many reviews of Amazon products are actually fake. Read more…
Canadian credit unions launch Android phone payments with Google Pay
Ten credit unions launched the Interac Debit payment system with Google Pay, allowing Canadian consumers to pay for purchases using their Android phones. Canadians have used the interact debit payment system for more than 20 years and this marks a big step forward for Google Pay in its efforts to expand its footprint in banking services. Read more…
The leapfrog effect: Overcoming barriers in global payment infrastructure
Over the last decade, we have seen an explosion in FinTech ushering a new era of commerce. Payment innovations and new solutions have closed the technology gap and have connected consumers all around the world — even those without bank accounts — to the digital marketplace. Many fast-emerging markets across Asia and Latin America have seen breakthroughs in delivering pragmatic payment solutions to meet the needs of their region’s consumers. Read more…
On the heels of its next fundraise, cross-border payments upstart Payoneer acquires optile
Payoneer — a provider of cross-border payment services to millions of businesses in some 200 markets that’s valued at over $1 billion — is today announcing that it has acquired optile, a German startup whose platform lets businesses integrate into a single payment experience different products offered by itself and third parties. Read more…
Is eToro’s foray into debit set to challenge Robinhood’s?
Multi-asset social trading platform eToro has confirmed its plans to launch a debit card to cryptocurrency news platform CoinRivet. The confirmation followed the leakage of the plans late last week when an anonymous source within eToro sent a series of emails to a number of financial news outlets exposing details on how the card will look and operate. According to the emails, the card is expected to launch by Q2 2020. Read more…
2019 US Payments Insights – Credit cards: Still the card of choice
When shopping in stores, 43% of U.S. consumers prefer to use credit/charge cards, followed by 32% who prefer to use debit and 17% who opt for cash. Further, these findings are on par with last year’s results. Compared to last year’s survey, more consumers report that merchants are trying to influence their method of paying. For example, this year 59% report that they have seen signs posted by merchants stating credit card minimums, up from 52% in 2018. Also, 46% report stores offering discounts for cash, a result that is up from 40% in 2018. Read more…
What the holidays could do to department stores
Department stores once owned the holidays, staging celebrations that seemed above the sales hustle while simultaneously making the season lucrative for themselves. Lately, however, the dawning of a new year has brought with it bad news for the segment, with evidence they once again missed expectations and ceded share to discounters and off-pricers. Holiday 2019 is setting up 2020 for more of the same. Read more…
Alleging digital wallets are not prepaid products, Paypal sues the CFPB over its prepaid rule
PayPal Holdings Inc. on Wednesday sued the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleging the regulatory agency’s 8-month-old prepaid rule represents a “category error” and a violation of the First Amendment and should be vacated by the court. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, charges that the 1,600-page regulation forces PayPal to make awkward and confusing disclosures to consumers by improperly including digital wallets under its definition of a general-purpose reloadable (GPR) card. Read more…
Who really killed Blockbuster?
The last Blockbuster on Earth was supposed to close this year. Its owner, Ken Tisher, once had five stores in his franchise. Store by store, he closed each one as the recession, and then the confluence of market shifts that killed off other video stores caught up with his. Before 2019 came, he thought it would likely be the year he would close the only one still standing, in Bend, Oregon. But in summer 2018, another franchise owner closed the last of his stores in Alaska, making the Bend store the last Blockbuster in the US. Read more…
LET’S CONNECT