“The Business Gold Card, which has an annual fee of $295, blends elements of both charge cards and credit cards. The card builds on other recent additions to American Express’ slate of products for small businesses, including the Amazon Business American Express Card launched in October. Like a traditional charge card, American Express will not pre-set spending limits for Business Gold Card members, but purchases under $100 must be paid in full by the end of each month.”

“Alipay, the payments app operated by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, has struck a partnership with European soccer governing body UEFA, the two firms announced Friday. The eight-year deal will see Alipay accepted at venues where UEFA-sanctioned men’s national team events are taking place, including the Euro 2020 and Euro 2024 soccer championships.”

“Mash and Nets have teamed up to provide a “pay later” solution to merchants across the Nordics. As the name suggests, this will offer consumers an option to pay later for purchases while “enabling merchants to increase their average basket size, growing their business”. At the time of purchase a user can select the Mash option from a Nets enabled terminal for instant on-boarding and credit approval. Within 14 days, the consumers will receive an invoice to pay the balance in full or choose to convert the payment into a monthly instalment plan.”

“Today, Citi Retail Services (CRS) announced the results of its third-annual nationwide study on evolving consumer shopping trends during the holiday season.  The survey of 1,000 U.S. adults found that this holiday season, in addition to rushing to the mall, consumers are increasingly powering up their computers and mobile devices or simply interacting with their virtual assistant. While nearly three-fourths (73%) still plan on visiting a brick-and-mortar store to purchase holiday gifts, a sizable 57% additionally plan on turning to their computer to shop, 42% to their mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet, and 13% to their virtual assistant, such as Alexa or Siri, to facilitate their holiday shopping needs.”

“Adjusted revenue grew 68 percent year over year. The company reported its first quarterly profit of $20 million, compared with a net loss of $16 million in the third quarter of last year. Square’s chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, said a “big driver” of the profitability was the investment in EventBrite, which went public in October.”

“Taking on critics of the move who say most of the banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes returned to the banking system, the finance minister in a Facebook post said: “An ill-informed criticism of the Demonetisation is that almost the entire cash money got deposited in the banks. Confiscation of currency was not an objective of Demonetisation. Getting it into the formal economy and making the holders pay tax was the broader objective.””

“The Walmart-PayPal service, expected to debut this month, sends a bar code to the PayPal account holder’s mobile phone, which can be redeemed for a cash withdrawal or deposit at a Walmart store. The program uses Green Dot’s so-called Banking-as-a-Service platform that enables outside companies to use Green Dot technology to develop new financial products.”

“The amount of money companies have invested in AI technologies has tripled since 2013, and early adopters are seeing better profit margins than their competitors, according to a recent McKinsey study.”

“Retailers clearly understand shoppers’ interest in more targeted promotions: 77% of executives believe that customers expect them to anticipate their needs by analyzing loyalty, purchase history and brand interaction data. Cutting-edge retailers are leveraging AI to create systems that continuously learn from every visit, ensuring that the shopper is given the most relevant experience possible from the moment they load a page or step inside a store.”

“Walmart-owned Sam’s Club is opening a new store in Dallas, Texas that will double as both a technology lab and a live retail store, enabling both customers and staff to test and make use of the latest developments in retail and payments technology. The new Sam’s Club Now store “will be a mobile-first shopping experience powered by the new Sam’s Club Now app,” says Jamie Iannone, the retailer’s EVP of membership and technology. “It’s where we will incubate, test and refine technologies to help define the future of retail.””

“From the consumer’s point of view, the greatest benefit of the do-everything platform is they don’t have to juggle dozens of apps. WeChat puts everything from social media and transportation to retail and banking in one platform, enabling consumers to message friends, play games, book a medical appointment, access bank accounts and make purchases without having to switch apps.”

“FIA director Mohammad Shoaib told local media about the breach shortly after cybersecurity firm Group-IB warned that a dump of Pakistani credit and debit card details has been doing the rounds of carder forums. According to Geo News, six banks have suspended the use of their debit cards outside of Pakistan. Last week, hackers got away with at least Rs2.6 million from Bank Islami accounts.”

“Canadian banking co-operative Desjardins is to wind down the operations of its mobile and online-only direct bank Zag Bank. The contrary decision to close the Calgary-based offshoot comes at a time when major banks the world over are contemplating setting up their own standalone digital operations to compete with newcomers and fintech startups.”

“The evolution of financial services over the last decade has been dictated by fintech companies with a tight focus on experience. The resulting landscape of thousands of easy-to-use options for payments, savings and planning has fundamentally changed how account holders view the relationships they have with their financial institutions.“

“KrebsOnSecurity recently had a chance to interview members of the REACT Task Force, a team of law enforcement officers and prosecutors based in Santa Clara, Calif. that has been tracking down individuals engaged in unauthorized “SIM swaps” — a complex form of mobile phone fraud that is often used to steal large amounts of cryptocurrencies and other items of value from victims.”

“Millions of small businesses around the globe turn to PayPal for their payment processing and funding needs. Today, PayPal is expanding its PayPal Working Capital program into Germany with PayPal Businesskredit. PayPal Businesskredit will offer PayPal merchants a financing solution that will help them further grow their business.”

“MetaBank^®, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Meta Financial Group, Inc.^® (NASDAQ: CASH) (“Meta”), today announced the launch of the AAA MemberPay Visa^® Prepaid Card — a card that combines general purpose reloadable (“GPR”) and travel features. Based on feedback from members of the American Automobile Association (“AAA”) and consumer preference, the AAA MemberPay Card’s features are intended to meet the demand for a single-source prepaid solution with broad capabilities. “

“Withdraw Cash Wednesday is a nationwide movement encouraging consumers to get cash from ATMs on Wednesdays for weekly spending as a means of financial control. The Withdraw Cash Wednesday movement was spurred by widespread consumer interest in the initial Withdraw Cash Wednesday holiday held in 2017.”

“TransferWise, the European fintech unicorn that enables low-cost international money transfer, has always had ambitions of being a platform in the truest sense. In addition to its direct-to-consumer app, the company offers an API for integration with other fintechs and banks, although it is fair to say that third-party integrations of this kind have been quite slow to come by. With that said, the number of third-party integrations appears to be picking up pace.”

“Payments between businesses have long remained ensnarled in paper processes that consumer payments have largely left behind, but lately signs have emerged that technology is at work streamlining business-to-business transactions. On Monday, fleet-fueling and corporate-payments specialist WEX Inc. said it will work with American Express Co. to allow clients to make payments via virtual cards with both one-time and multiple-time use capability. At the same time, Visa Inc. announced it is teaming with billing-services provider Billtrust to develop a network that can enable electronic payments to corporate suppliers.”

“It will be increasingly challenging for banks to thrive just by optimizing the as-is when the entire industry is facing a growing level of uncertainty. Nonetheless, it is important for banks to manage innovation from a portfolio perspective, determine the potential impact of different types of innovation, and to balance risk among incremental, evolutionary and revolutionary ideas.”

“This debate is wide-ranging and hits on many practical and philosophical parts of antitrust policy. This post attempts to break down the discussion and disagreements into discrete arguments that can, perhaps, help newcomers understand the debate.”

“Verifying card owners can transfer liability for fraud disputes away from the merchants who utilize 3DS. With issuing banks preparing to support 3DS 2.0 integrations by spring 2019, many merchants may be wondering how this next iteration will impact them — and how they can prepare.”

“NatWest has launched the Mettle business current account for SMEs. Mettle is specifically designed to provide businesses with a new outlook on how to manage their finances. It combines a current account with invoicing, payment chasing and bookkeeping capabilities.”

“Deluxe Corporation (NYSE: DLX) today announced that Barry C. McCarthy, an accomplished executive with an extensive track record of developing and building technology-driven solutions for financial institutions and small businesses, has been named Deluxe’s President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors, effective November 26, 2018. He joins Deluxe after 14 years at First Data, where most recently he served as Executive Vice President and Head of its Network & Security Solutions business, a diversified and growing, $1.5 billion publicly reported segment.”

“Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., StopLift has developed Artificial Intelligence capabilities that visually determine what occurs during each transaction to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent behavior at the checkout. Most notably, StopLift’s technology detects scan-avoidance and flags unscanned, unpaid merchandise at the checkout. Examples include passing items around the scanner, leaving unscanned items in the shopping cart, and covering up the barcode while scanning.”

““Rather than waiting for cash to be manually deposited at the bank by staff or having an armored car service to empty the kiosk, process and deposit the cash into the business’s bank account, the provisional cash capability enabled by Fiserv technology allows for next-day availability of funds,” said Marco Freudman, CEO, QuotePro Inc. “That helps eliminate risk and improves cash flow. Our business clients have been asking for this capability, and we see it as a game-changer.””

“France-based Ingenico has named a new CEO a month after receiving an unsolicited takeover bid, signaling a strategy shift in the face of increasing pressure on the last of the independent payment terminal hardware giants. Philippe Lazare is exiting his role as chairman and CEO after leading the company for 11 years, Ingenico said in a Monday press release.”

“I’ve been in the hospitality business for over 30 years, and it still amazes me to see how long promising restaurant technologies take before receiving widespread market adoption. Although some don’t remain idle quite as long as others, the food and beverage industry is notoriously slow to embrace change. Despite the gradual pace, there seems to be more momentum in recent years, and that’s a reason to get excited. Let’s take a look at how restaurant technology is changing the business of dining.”

“Consumers shouldn’t bear the burden of figuring out complicated banking applications and jargon to pay their bills. This includes navigating through multiple screens to move their money. It’s time to reinvent bill paying and, according to a recent report from Javelin, financial institutions are in the best position to do just that. Consumers need banking applications to provide better oversight of all bills, easier transacting and more control over accounts, including how fast money moves.”

“The first Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) in Africa was launched Wednesday in Kigali, opening doors for small businesses in Africa to take part in cross-border electronic trade. The platform is a result of a partnership between the Government of Rwanda and Alibaba Group.”

“Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, and search company Yandex are hoping to capture the country’s Rbs1.1tn ecommerce market with a new online marketplace, Beru, which they say will be a “Russian Amazon”.  The $1bn joint venture, which launched on Wednesday, is key to Sberbank chief executive Herman Gref’s plan to diversify the state-run bank by creating an “ecosystem” that provides everything from medical services to cyber security.”

“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to clarify when and how cryptocurrencies may be classified as securities, its director of Corporation Finance said Monday. Speaking at the D.C. Fintech Week conference, SEC director William Hinman said the regulatory agency intends to release “plain English” guidance for developers to refer to when planning token offerings.”

“Crooks who hack online merchants to steal payment card data are constantly coming up with crafty ways to hide their malicious code on Web sites. In Internet ages past, this often meant obfuscating it as giant blobs of gibberish text that was obvious even to the untrained eye. These days, a compromised e-commerce site is more likely to be seeded with a tiny snippet of code that invokes a hostile domain which appears harmless or that is virtually indistinguishable from the hacked site’s own domain.”

“Widespread replacement of password-only authentication needs more than regulations. Without a set of standard protocols, organisations and companies will struggle to find an authentication technology that keeps them in line with security regulations while making their applications available to their users.”

“7-Eleven is making more moves to go cashierless — or at least give customers the option to. Starting Monday, 14 stores in Dallas will have scan-and-go technology built in the company’s mobile app, so customers can scan and pay for items on their phones.”

“TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) announced today an agreement to sell its Noddle business, the U.K.-based free for life credit report service, to Credit Karma. TransUnion acquired Noddle earlier this year as part of its acquisition of Callcredit, the second largest consumer bureau in the U.K.”

“Visa (NYSE: V) and Billtrust today announced that they are collaborating on Billtrust’s Business Payments Network (BPN), which is designed to streamline the delivery of electronic B2B payments to suppliers. As a unique supplier-driven B2B payments network, BPN provides a transparent registry of suppliers who accept digital payments, giving buyers and financial institutions the necessary access to automate what has historically been a complex process.”

“Wirecard, the global innovation leader for digital financial technology, today announced its platform expansion in Australia and New Zealand. The Wirecard platform is now available in New Zealand for e-commerce services and Australia for omnichannel solutions. With this expansion, Wirecard is extending its ecosystem of real-time value added services around innovative digital payments in Oceania.”

“PNC Bank, National Association, announced today a strategic alliance with GIACT Systems^®, the leader in helping companies positively identify and authenticate customers. By employing GIACT’s verification and authentication technology, PNC commercial clients will be armed with real-time fraud prevention tools to confirm an account is open, active and in good standing prior to initiating a payment.”