Payments

It’s no surprise that the first step in the modernization of the payment industry was the issuance of virtual cards. These new payment instruments abstracted debit cards, credit cards, and prepaid gift and incentive cards down to their essence, says Marqeta's Vidya Peters.

Traditionally, consumers take summer vacations to recharge from the hustle and bustle of daily life, as well as to reconnect with families and friends, before moving on to the next phase of their lives such as the restart of schools or going back to work – but not this year.

To ensure safe, secure transactions that are protected against fraud, retailers moving to EMV have been encouraged by their POS partners to replace or upgrade the network infrastructure, says TNS' Brian DuCharme.

Microsoft has boosted its role in the digital payments migration through a series of ventures, using its cloud computing platform to support merchant upgrades and real-time processing.

In a simple job posting and reference to a subscription platform, Twitter drew attention to how it could use its platform to embed in numerous use cases that tie social tools, recurring revenue and digital commerce.

Viewing it as a way to help businesses emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, Ingenico is targeting digital merchants with expanded services addressing cross border, recurring and subscription payments.

As the age of clocking in and out of the office gives way to the gig economy and remote employment opportunities, workers have new expectations around the way they will be paid.

For the past several years, the concept of sharing transaction data between merchants, processors and issuers has been considered a good security measure to curb fraud. But someone has to compile and compare that data in such a way to not only stop fraud, but assure legitimate transactions are not declined.

The role of EMVCo — which is often seen as an extension of the card brands that deals only with chip-based EMV plastic cards— has come into sharper focus.

Fueling its market expansion, U.K. earned wage access startup Wagestream has raised £20 million (about $25 million) in a Series B fundraiser from several VC firms.