The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web:
Making a point
McDonald's is nearing the end of a pilot program for a U.S. loyalty program that's expected to debut nationally before the end of 2021.
Called MyMcDonald's Rewards, the program offers 100 points for every dollar spent, with extra points for targeted promotions, reports
PayPal profits
PayPal could have kept to its core competencies and still had a massively successful 2020 due to the surge in digital payments that came out of the coronavirus pandemic. But it also jumped onto lucrative new trends.
Key to PayPal's successful year were its support for buying and selling cryptocurrencies; and its entry into the buy now/pay later market.
“I’m pleased to report that PayPal just completed the strongest year in our history, Achieving record growth in net new active customers, volume, revenue, operating income, earnings and free cash flow," said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal in the company’s Wednesday earnings call. "Consumers and businesses of all sizes have embraced the new digital era, erasing the distinction between online and offline. A digital first world is no longer our future, it is our current reality.”
Going national
As pandemic forces the
The bank technology company is extending CardFreeCash, which allows mobile access to ATM accounts. The service will be available through Fiserv's CardValet mobile app on the Diebold Nixdorf and NCR ATMs that Fiserv supports. Consumers use a mobile app to generate an access code to perform transactions at about 30,000 ATMs.
The app includes a geolocation feature that locates ATMs and a digital hub that tracks card activity, provides alerts for PIN and signature debit and credit card transactions and detects unauthorized activity.
Blockchain beach
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is trying to lure cryptocurrency companies to South Florida, and is offering easier rules and regulations as an attraction.
The Rebublican mayor, who is trying to make Miami a general technology destination and hub for distributed ledgers, plans to issue the rules next week, reports
Suarez is also trying to create an easier path for crypto firms to obtain bank charters in the state, and has studied crypto regulations in New York and Wyoming as a guide.
Fusing together
Tipalti has added three partnerships to diversify services that are built off of its cross-border payments base.
Colu supports civic engagement and financial inclusion initiatives, Fusion Partners is an investment development firm and Queue Associates consults on CRM, Cloud, ERP and Microsoft applications. For example, Colu could pair its buy-local apps with Tipalti's payment processing rail as Colu executes its national expansion in the U.S.
From the web
TECHCRUNCH | Thursday, February 4, 2021
Nearly every adult in India has a bank account, but fewer than a quarter of them in the South Asian nation can secure loans from the formal financial institutions.
REUTERS | Thursday, February 4, 2021
Cryptocurrency Dogecoin surged more than 50% on Thursday after billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted his support for it, two days after he said he was to take a break from Twitter "for a while".
REUTERS | Wednesday, February 3, 2021
E-commerce firm eBay Inc said on Wednesday it would emerge "stronger" from the COVID-19 crisis after a pandemic-driven surge in online shopping helped the company beat estimates for sales and profit in the holiday quarter.
More from PaymentsSource
Major projects like Diem are moving crypto beyond its fan base, according to Icon Solutions' Simon Wilson.
Key to PayPal's successful year were its support for buying and selling cryptocurrencies; and its entry into the buy now/pay later market.
Vast Bank in Oklahoma is one of the first to allow customers to purchase digital currencies, a market that has proved lucrative for fintechs.
Balance, an API-based checkout solution designed for B2B e-commerce, has raised $5.5 million to launch operations with backing from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Stripe, Affirm and PayPal cofounder Max Levchin.
Ant Group and Chinese regulators have agreed on a restructuring plan that will turn Jack Ma’s fintech giant into a financial holding company, making it subject to capital requirements similar to those for banks.
Forgiveness will be a major theme this coming year. Millions of American are mired in debt and struggling to meet their financial obligations. Debt continues to mount, while consumer demand for new products and services remains constant.
Vast Bank now lets customers buy cryptocurrency from their bank accounts — a feature more commonly associated with third-party payment apps like PayPal and Square.
Payoneer is the latest payments company to merge with a special purpose acquisition company, making public listings easier while attracting broader and potentially riskier investors.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling for federal legalization of cannabis. This should be welcome news to niche payment processors already in the business, but it would also reward big players waiting on the sidelines.
Moves to protect competition will help fintechs and push innovation, says AppBrilliance's C. Eric Smith.
Billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Group delivered about $2.3 billion in profit in the quarter right before Chinese regulators brought down the hammer on the financial technology giant’s record public offering and ordered it to scale back its sprawling business.
WASHINGTON — While other major government initiatives have been delayed or shelved due to the pandemic, the Federal Reserve says it has made substantial headway in the past year constructing the real-time payments system FedNow, and is now more optimistic about when it will launch.
Cross-border payments technology provider Routefusion plans to expand its embedded software services and global partnerships after a recent funding round.
The value of dynamic pricing technology has long been demonstrated by e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, but will it ever play a role in the average grocery store or pharmacy?
The card network is testing two artificial intelligence-powered programs that it says give banks some of the benefits of faster payments without requiring the immediate movement of funds.
