Kraken Moves Beyond Crypto with P2P App
Kraken, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, is continuing its expansion into mainstream financial services with the launch of its peer-to-peer (P2P) payments app. The platform, dubbed Krak, allows users to send cross-border P2P payments in both fiat and crypto. The Krak app features an attached spend account and an earnings account that offers […]
PayPal Enters the World of College Sports
PayPal has signed agreements with two major NCAA conferences, the Big Ten and the Big 12, to allow student-athletes to receive compensation through its platform. According to CBS Sports, PayPal will pay the Big 12 nearly $100 million over five years. No comparable figure was reported for the Big Ten, but given it is a […]
Infostealer Threat Persists Despite Data Breach Questions
A recent report from Cybernews spotlighted the discovery of 30 datasets containing 16 billion login credentials from major tech platforms, including Apple, Google, and Facebook. The datasets were identified over the course of this year by Volodymyr Diachenko, co-founder of the cybersecurity consultancy Security Discovery, and were suspected to be the work of multiple parties […]
As Payment Types Proliferate, Debit Cards Still Go Strong
The debit card may be the workhorse of payment methods, but that hasn’t kept the product behind the scenes. In fact, debit has become the product du jour, with recent releases from fintech heavyweights like Venmo and Klarna. There have even been debit card launches by companies as diverse as Wyndham Hotels and Kraken crypto […]
Xero to Acquire Melio, Advancing Its U.S. Small Business Strategy
Xero, a New Zealand-based platform for small businesses, is making a major move into the U.S. market with plans to acquire Melio Limited, a bill pay platform that serves small and medium-sized businesses. The acquisition, valued at $2.5 billion, will be a mix of cash and equity. Melio currently serves 80,000 customers and processes more […]
Mastercard Builds Sandbox for UK Real-Time Payments Experimentation
To further foster innovation within the UK’s strong open banking ecosystem, Mastercard has developed a sandbox where financial institutions can experiment with the latest instant payments technology. The sandbox gives banks access to Mastercard’s fifth generation account-to-account (A2A) real-time payments infrastructure. Within this environment, UK financial institutions can test payment use cases across retail, peer-to-peer […]
How Embedded Payments Is Optimizing the Expense Management Process
Organizations routinely ask employees to take clients out to lunch or attend industry conferences. Yet the expense management process designed to support these essential functions is often manual, time-consuming, and prone to delays, errors, and misuse. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Susie Shyatt, Business Development Executive at B4B Payments, and Hugh Thomas, Lead Commercial Payments […]
Walmart’s Wire Transfer Policies Lead to $10 Million Fine
For years, Walmart turned a blind eye to criminals who coerced victims into sending them wire transfers through its in-store money transfer services, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Walmart has now agreed to pay $10 million to settle the allegations. FTC’s investigation found that Walmart failed to implement basic anti-fraud safeguards, such as proper […]
EuroPA, EPI Aim to Strengthen European Cross-Border Real-Time Payments
The EuroPA alliance is partnering with the European Payments Initiative (EPI) to explore opportunities for connecting European consumers and merchants across 15 countries. The initiative aims to support all payment types—from peer-to-peer (P2P) payments to enterprise-level transactions. Under this model, users will be able to use their preferred digital payment solutions both locally and across […]
How Banks Can Bring Small Businesses Back to the Fold
The relationship between financial institutions and small businesses has grown increasingly strained. Many small businesses are becoming dissatisfied with their payment and banking services. In fact, more than half obtain their merchant payment accounts from providers other than their primary bank. In a PaymentsJournal podcast, Fiserv’s Tim Ruhe, Head of FI Payment Strategy, AJ Levin, […]