The PaymentsJournal Podcast

With regulations becoming increasingly strict, it is more important than ever for companies to deploy a holistic approach to managing risk. More specifically, financial services organizations should be using a digital identity network to decrease fraud and optimize identity verification. To learn why a digital identity network is the best approach to digital identity verification, […] The po...

In recent years, earned wage access (EWA) has grown in popularity as a way for employees to receive wages on-demand. But in a stunning blow to the community of EWA providers who debit, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released an advisory opinion on Nov. 30, 2020, explicitly excluding debiting practices from safe harbor. Instead, […] The post Breaking Down the CFPB’s Earned Wa...

For years, the global e-commerce marketplace eBay relied on a full referral model to PayPal to process payments. Sellers around the world were required to open a PayPal account to list and sell items on eBay, and PayPal would fully provision and manage their payments from start to finish. This lasted for 13 years, during […] The post eBay’s Upgraded Approach to Payment Processing Meets the D...

Gift cards have long been a consumer favorite when it comes to gifting, and this holiday season was no exception. A recent Blackhawk survey revealed that 52% of consumers surveyed reported being more likely to buy more gift cards this holiday season than in previous years. This comes after gift cards were already enjoying over […] The post It’s Time for Retailers to Offer the Best Gift of Al...

Convenience stores, or C-stores, are a part of consumers’ everyday lives. People may need to stop for gas on their way home, or for a coffee before work. A hungry employee might stop by for a sandwich from the prepared foods section on their lunch break. Even students sometimes make a quick stop before class […] The post Building C-Store Customer Loyalty Programs With Relevant Rewards appear...

Nobody wants to be the person holding up the line because their credit card was declined, and merchants definitely don’t want to turn away business. Small improvements in authorization rates can make a difference of millions of dollars, which is why all merchants strive to have customers complete their transactions successfully on the first try. […] The post How PayPal Achieves High Authoriz...

The loyalty programs of quick service restaurants (QSRs) like Starbucks, Dunkin’, and McDonald’s have come a long way since the days of the paper punch card. As technology advanced, punch cards were largely abandoned in favor of plastic cards. Later, mobile apps became the predominant platform used to host QSR loyalty programs. But there are […] The post QSRs Can Address Loyalty Program Shor...

Each year, successful data breaches result in the exposure of millions of credentials—typically a username or email and password—that can be used by increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals to commit fraud. Credential stuffing, human emulation, and other fraud attacks leave merchants vulnerable to the costs of such a breach. To learn more about the operational costs of […] The post How Merc...

Banks have an opportunity to be stable, well-financed technology disruptors when working with appropriate partners. By partnering with technology providers, banks can combine their financial strength and market power with the innovation and speed of high-tech product companies, enabling banks to compete against newly formed fintech startups. To talk more about how banks can differentiate […]...

In February 2020, Nacha announced that it was developing an online platform that integrates technology, rules, and participants to exchange payment-related information across all payment types. The platform, named Phixius, went live and completed its first information exchange transactions by early November.  To learn more about Phixius, the significance of interoperable financial services, a...

Fraudulent activity is on the rise, with criminals looking to take advantage of the pandemic, and faster payments is shaping up to be a prime target. That is because faster payments shorten the time that financial institutions can use artificial intelligence and other fraud identifiers to determine the legitimacy of a transaction. Without a standard […] The post Fraudulent Activity is the Ne...

These days, most of what businesses and individuals do on the web involves interacting with APIs, or application programming interfaces, which are an essential pillar of many of the online services we have come to rely on. In the payments and financial services industry, the interoperability of banking technology is just as important to stakeholders […] The post Who Runs the World? APIs. app...

There’s no doubt that all this staying home is boring, so it’s no wonder people have picked up new hobbies since the start of the pandemic. Some folks have taken to puzzles or Sudoku, while others prefer to binge watch every season of Ozark. Criminals were not immune either, picking up new skills and accelerating […] The post Refinitiv Acquires GIACT, Enhances Cyber Crime Fighting Capabiliti...

The financial services industry is constantly evolving, and the way financial data is stored, shared, and used is no exception. To meet the expectations of consumers who want to streamline  financial management, data traditionally stored in siloes is being aggregated. This data aggregation, along with data sharing, is crucial for a seamless customer experience. To […] The post Secure Da...

Payment gateways have never been more popular than during COVID-19, and the size of the market is only growing as digital commerce accelerates. With grocery stores, sporting goods manufacturers, and home improvement retailers becoming more essential to the pandemic lifestyle, these, among other merchants, have added to the market size for payment gateways. As a […] The post The Rise of Platf...

E-commerce has grown exponentially in recent months, providing a way for merchants to stay afloat amid the throes of the ongoing pandemic. Unfortunately, along with that growth comes an increase in fraud and chargebacks.   To talk about what online merchants need to do to manage and prevent chargebacks and fraud, PaymentsJournal sat down with […] The post This New Solution Enables Merch...

COVID-19 has made it clearer than ever that the manual account payables processes so many companies rely on are inefficient and prone to security threats. By opting to move away from paper checks in favor of an integrated payables solution, organizations facilitating B2B payments can not only better protect themselves and their customers against fraud, […] The post Adopting Integrated Payabl...

COVID-19 has changed everything about the way we live, and this trend doesn’t seem to be pausing for the holidays. Parties are significantly smaller or nonexistent, many out-of-state family members won’t be returning home, and tree lighting ceremonies have gone virtual. And while the spending habits of gift buyers have also changed, consumers are still […] The post The SPENDemic: Holiday Sho...

Over the years, consumers have become accustomed to getting what they want when they want it, usually by doing no more than clicking a few buttons. They can watch new shows by the season, get same day shipping from marketplaces like Amazon, and order groceries online for immediate delivery.  So it makes sense that this […] The post On-Demand Pay: What Does the CFPB Have to Say About It?...

It’s been said many times, but continues to ring true: the 2020 holiday season will be unlike any before. COVID-19 has elongated the shopping season, shifted consumers to digital channels, and changed what gifts people are buying and who they’re buying for. To paint a clearer picture of what this shopping season will look like, […] The post Forecasting the Holiday Season: A Big Year for Gift...

Retail financing is an appealing incentive for merchants and consumers alike. One type of alternative financing, waterfall lending, makes it possible for retailers to approve a higher number of transactions, resulting in happier customers and increased sales. With the holiday shopping season officially upon us and the economic impact of the ongoing pandemic still apparent, […] The post Alter...

Ryan McEndarfer: Could you give us a little bit of an overview of what American Express is doing in the marketplace, when it comes to data and personalizing the customer experience? Anthony Mavromatis: Using data for American Express is certainly not something new. We’ve been leveraging our data for some time, and over the last […] The post Q&A: Ryan McEndarfer, PaymentsJournal an...

False declines cost merchants billions in revenue each year, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Using dynamic identity elements can help businesses determine the risk level of a transaction, verify a customer’s identity, and ultimately reduce the number of false declines chipping away at their revenue. To talk more about how dynamic identity […] The post Combating False Declines with Dyna...

In the time of COVID-19, nations across the globe have become germ-centric. People wear masks, stand six feet apart, and constantly sanitize their hands in fear of contracting the virus. Because of this newfound desire to exist in a touchless world, there has been an influx in the use of modern cards—credit cards that exist […] The post Issuers Beware: Modernize Payment Card Portfolios, or R...

Many are familiar with the ACH Network, which last year electronically moved 24.7 billion payments valued at nearly $56 trillion between accounts at different financial institutions for payments including large B2B transactions or payroll direct deposit. Others may recognize the ACH Network as the payment system that funneled stimulus payments into millions of bank accounts […] The post The...