Point-of-sale terminal shipments worldwide reached 136.0 million in 2021, up 4.3% over 2020. Shipments of these devices by manufacturer and region are presented on pages 6 and 7. POS terminals counted include countertop, multilane, tablet and handheld devices with integrated chip and/or magnetic stripe card readers, unattended devices, terminals that can read QR codes and also accept cards and those that can read a biometric identifier and then facilitate a payment.
There were 68 merger and acquisition transactions in the merchant processing and acquiring sector of the payment card industry during the first six months of 2022.
Virtual numbers (tokens) are used as a substitute for a cardholder’s primary account number (PAN) in payment wallets (in phones and watches) and when stored at a merchant’s data center (to handle recurring purchases) as well as in nonpayment applications to replace personally identifiable information (PII).
Providing a risk assessment on consumer purchases from Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) is the aim of Crypto Secure, a service Mastercard is making available to card issuers worldwide. VASPs are 3,600 crypto exchanges and other companies that sell digital currencies.
FTX, a crypto exchange, has partnered with Visa to offer FTX-branded debit cards to customers in more than 40 countries. Cards are currently available in the US and will be offered in Europe later this year.
Payments made for purchases of games, apps, subscriptions (cable TV, telecom, mobile) and streaming services reached $230 billion in 2021—app store spending was $170 billion and streaming entertainment was $60 billion.
Mastercard partnered with Hi, a crypto exchange and app provider, to produce personalized debit cards featuring the image of an NFT avatar the cardholder already owns. The Hi card will support NFTs from approved collections, which include CryptoPunks, Moonbirds, Goblins, Bored Apes and Azukis.
Merchant acquiring assets at Worldline in the Asia-Pacific region include its majority ownership (51%-49%) in ANZ’s portfolio of merchant services contracts for the bank’s customers in Australia, ownership of Paymark in New Zealand, operations in India and a new business in Japan. The company also has offices in Singapore and China.
Amsterdam-based Adyen, Europe’s seventh largest merchant acquirer, will soon begin marketing two mobile point-of-sale devices. Both were designed in-house and operate on the Adyen platform.
NearPay, a crypto protocol provider, launched virtual-card and digital-wallet services for residents of the EEA and the UK. The NearPay Wallet is available for iOS and Android operating systems and supports 38 cryptocurrencies.
