Payment industry leaders are gearing up for a year of continued growth, a competitive and challenging business environment, and a few unknowns in the year ahead. Here’s what we’re paying attention to in payments industry news around the world.
PayPal faces lawsuit for freezing customer accounts and funds
Three PayPal users who allegedly had their accounts frozen and funds taken by the company without explanation have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the online payment service. The plaintiffs — two users from California and one from Chicago — are accusing the company of unlawfully seizing their personal property and violating racketeering laws. The lawsuit seeks all restitution, as well as punitive and exemplary damages. Read more…
Mastercard advances B2B payments solution with BMO and Moneris partnerships
Mastercard announced new partnerships with BMO and Moneris, who have joined Mastercard Track™ Business Payment Service. Available to Canadian business customers in early 2022, it is designed to help buyer and supplier partners tackle the systemic challenges of business-to-business payments – one of the first open-loop commercial solutions to do so globally and a first of its kind in Canada. Read more…
Buy now-pay later demand hit US high during holiday season
Consumer use of the installment financing tool in the U.S. climbed to an all-time high in December, although heady growth rates are slowing, a Bank of America report said. Total US buy now-pay later (BNPL) app downloads for the top operators Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna and Zip (formerly Quadpay) rose to 3.47 million in December. Dec shows a 20% year-over-year increase, was higher than the 14% YOY rate for Nov, but the rate of increase is slowing compared with more than doubling (+131%) between Jan and June last year. Read more…
Banks are making it easier to get credit cards
Lenders shunned borrowers with less-than-perfect credit at the start of the pandemic. Now they are embracing them. An estimated 29.2 million general-purpose credit cards were issued to people with credit scores of 660 and below last year, according to projections from credit-reporting firm TransUnion, up from 20.4 million in 2020 and 26.3 million in 2019. That is generally the threshold where lenders view consumers as having fair, rather than good, credit. Read more…
Payments firms see slam dunk opportunity with sports venues
Digital payments players are charging into the sports and events space, bringing new technologies to arenas to improve the fan experience and unlock a trove of data. UBS Arena, home of the NHL’s New York Islanders, recently partnered with Fiserv, one of a couple dozen venues using the company’s point-of-sale hardware and software employing contactless commerce, including grab-and-go kiosks, digital or mobile ordering and contactless pickup. Read more…
Apple will allow outside payments in Dutch dating apps
Apple. will comply with a Dutch ruling to allow third-party payment options for dating apps, the first time the company is allowing outside payments within App Store apps. Apple said it will continue to collect its revenue share, which has been highly scrutinized by governments and developers in multiple countries. The company said that most developers who sell dating apps are based outside of the Netherlands so any revenue generated from this change wouldn’t benefit the local economy. Read more…
Investors wary on bank growth despite executives’ optimism
While big US bank bosses were optimistic on the economic outlook on Friday, pointing to an uptick in some lending businesses and a jump in consumer spending, investors were skeptical on the growth outlook for the sector. Bank shares across the board were down 2.1%, with only Wells Fargo bucking the trend amongst the top six, amid worries over a decline in trading revenues and loan growth. Read more…
Small businesses depending on digital payments to drive growth
82% of SMBs surveyed said they will accept digital options in 2022 and 46% of consumers surveyed expect to use digital options more often in 2022, with just 4% saying they will use them less according to an annual outlook survey by Visa. 90% of surveyed SMBs said they are optimistic about the future of their businesses, the highest level of optimism in Visa Global Back to Business studies to-date. Read more…
Cloud and Clear: Accenture Cloud Readiness Report
After many years of hype, but little change, there is now compelling evidence that banking is truly being disrupted by digitization. Across major banking markets, there is a proliferation of new competitors, with 19 percent of all institutions new to the market since 2005. In the UK—the most disrupted developed market—around 14 percent of retail and commercial banking revenue has migrated to new entrants, and multiple neo-banks have now passed the 1 million customer milestone. Read more…
Snapdeal to issue RuPay cards with BoB financial
Snapdeal has partnered with BoB financial and NCPI to launch co-branded contactless RuPay credit cards targeted at online buyers in smaller cities. Snap deal receives 86% of its orders from outside the metros, with over 72% of buyers living in tier-2 and smaller cities. The new card, available in March, will provide extra rewards and benefits while shopping on Snapdeal and other transaction points. Read more…
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