The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web:
Contactless prescriptions
CVS has added support for QR code PayPal or Venmo payments at 8,200 locations, removing an extra step in which a consumer has to make contact with a terminal.
The pharmacy chain will accept credit and debit cards, PayPal Credit, bank accounts and balances, reports
It's also a major step for
New wave
Tokyo-based JCB saw a 30% year-over-year increase in contactless payment transactions through July, according to a new white paper the card network released.
JCB’s retail partners began aggressively expanding contactless payment acceptance in 2018, and JCB expects to see a 15% increase in retailers accepting contactless payments through the end of the year, according to the research.
Despite ongoing economic uncertainty due to the pandemic, JCB’s e-commerce sales volume continues to grow, helping drive a 37% increase in JCB’s annual online sales volume over the last four years, the company said.
Early bird
U.S. Bank is the first bank to integrate with Akoya, the API-based data-aggregation network owned by a dozen North American financial institutions, including U.S. Bank.
Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank will use the Akoya Data Access Network to grant, monitor and revoke access to financial data consumers opt to share with third parties, according to a press release.
The consortium of banks
The company is jointly owned by Fidelity along with The Clearing House Payments Co. and 11 large banks including PNC, Bank of America, Citigroup and U.S. Bank. It uses APIs to restrict third parties to extract only specific data for defined use cases, to guard privacy and security.
Target set
The European Central Bank plans to review a breakdown of its real-time gross settlement system that caused an 10-hour outage.
The October 23 incident involved a software defect in the TARGET2 system, which is operated by the Eurosystem. An independent review will examine other incidents impacting TARGET settlement services in 2020 with a focus on business continuity, change management, communication protocols and the relevancy of recovery tests.
The findings should be released by the second quarter of 2021. The TARGET system includes the ECB and 19 other European central banks, which use Target to submit euro-denominated payment orders.
IPO
Airbnb is planning its debut on Nasdaq, following a profitable quarter in which it earned $219 million in net income on $1.34 billion in revenue.
While its revenue was down 19% as travel declined during the pandemic, the company expects to expand its revenue and services from a base of recurring customers, reports CNBC.
From the web
REUTERS | Monday, November 16, 2020
Brazil's central bank on Monday launched an instant payments platform that will speed up and simplify transactions, as well as foster financial sector competition and lure in new players such as big techs Facebook Inc and Google.
TECHCRUNCH | Tuesday, November 17, 2020
A little over two years after its $753 million acquisition of the prescription medicine delivery service Pillpack, Amazon has finally launched Amazon Pharmacy, its online and mobile prescription medication ordering and fulfillment service.
REUTERS | Monday, November 16, 2020
Social media giant Twitter Inc, under increased threat of regulation and plagued by serious security breaches, is appointing one of the world's best-regarded hackers to tackle everything from engineering missteps to misinformation.
More from PaymentsSource
Virtual card company Marqeta will provide the platform to underpin Uber Eats' global growth and become the issuing partner for future Uber initiatives.
Having an enforceable record on hand increases your ability to dispute chargeback claims by showing that a purchase was made intentionally, says PactSafe's Eric Prugh.
Italian technology firm Nexi has dedicated about $15 billion over the past two months to shore up its position in the European payment processing market, a local burst of consolidation that exists inside a larger wave of similar mergers globally.
Mastercard set out more than a year ago to fix the fragmented B2B payments landscape by developing a global multi-rail strategy modeled in part on streamlined digitized consumer payments platforms like Venmo and Zelle.
Truist Financial Corp. has hired Sal Karakaplan to head its newly formed Enterprise Payments Group, which will be responsible for driving and executing a coordinated strategy across Truist’s various payments businesses.
Using technology to analyze payment data, automate workflows and make decisions - including around fraud detection - is becoming quicker and more efficient. At the same time, artificial analysis and machine learning offers greater flexibility and control, allowing banks, merchants, and payment providers to launch new business models quickly.
Mastercard says it has been notified the Department of Justice has approved its planned acquisition of data aggregator Finicity, putting the card brand on track to close the deal before the end of the year.
As futuristic as real-time digital payments can be, the concept is almost like a blast from the past for FIS’ Raja Gopalakrishnan.
With time running out, industry actors are looking for ways to maintain the integrity of the infrastructure while recognizing a new banking framework following a no-deal Brexit, says GlobalSign's Arvid Vermote.
President-elect Joe Biden’s victory has cleared uncertainty over White House policies that impact fintechs and payment firms, revealing clues as to how the regulatory environment will be different in 2021.
The traditional point of sale model, complete with an anchored screen attached to a cash wrap, has been around for ages. However, this status quo has been challenged over the past few years and, with COVID-19 transforming physical stores at an accelerated rate, we can expect this classic POS model to become obsolete in just a few years.
