Industry News

Bread Financial Holdings has reported first-quarter net income of $134 million with profits of $2.70 per share. Earnings, adjusted to account for discontinued operations, came to $2.73 per share.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has extended the deadline for public comments on Capital One's proposed acquisition of Discover from April 22, 2024 to May 31, 2024. The acquisition, which is valued at $35.30 billion, would create the largest US credit card business and the sixth largest US bank. The deal is expected to face regulatory scrutiny.

American Express Company has reported first-quarter net income of $2.4 billion, or $3.33 per share, compared with net income of $1.8 billion, or $2.40 per share, a year ago. Consolidated provisions for credit losses were $1.3 billion, compared with $1.1 billion a year ago. The increase reflected higher net write-offs, partially offset by a lower net reserve build of $148 million, compared with a net reserve build of $320 million a year ago.

Fime has been selected by Al Etihad Payments, a subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE, to help establish the UAE’s Jaywan domestic card payment scheme. To support Jaywan's goals of boosting financial inclusion, sovereignty and economic stability in the region, Fime will set up a framework to simplify certification for scheme participants.

Discover Financial Services has reported net income of $308 million or $1.10 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2024, as compared to a net income of $968 million or $3.55 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2023. Payment Services pretax income was $82 million, up $35 million YOY primarily due to increased revenue from Pulse, where total volume grew 21%. Diners Club volume grew 11% YOY.

Interac, which handles 20 million transactions daily in Canada, including for the country's national debit card system, has acquired the exclusive rights to use Toronto-based Vouchr platform, which enables users to send and receive personalized multimedia notifications along with their money transfers.

The Merchants Payments Coalition is pressing Congress to pass the Credit Card Competition Act, citing high profits reported last week by three of the largest credit card issuing banks in the US. JPMorgan Chase reported an increase in net income of 44.8% from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024. Citigroup reported first-quarter net income of $3.4 billion represented a profit margin of 16% on revenue of $21.1 billion. Wells Fargo reported net income of $4.6 billion, a 22% profit margin on revenue of $20.9 billion.

Atto, a provider of open banking technology and credit risk services that use transactional data, has partnered with FICO for the UK market. The partnership will allow UK lenders to integrate Open Banking data into the credit scoring process. Transaction-based scores will rank-order consumers’ risk by analyzing consumer-permissioned data on current account and tradeline transactions. FICO has built scoring models using Open Banking data for other markets since 2018.

Verituity, a provider of verified payouts, has integrated Mastercard Move into its platform. Mastercard Move is a portfolio of domestic and international money transfer services that facilities near real-time payouts for commercial banks and payers. The cloud-based, white-labeled platform allows for the immediate verification of payees and their transactions.

The Chips Network, a private-sector high-value clearing and settlement system operated by The Clearing House, has migrated to the ISO 20022 message format, providing users with extended remittance information. The migration also allows for users to query message formats for multiple purposes, including sanctions and compliance screening, and supports the dollar as a global reserve and settlement currency.

Airwallex, a global payments and financial platform, has introduced the Airwallex Borderless Visa card for businesses in Canada. The virtual card, issued by Peoples Trust Company, allows users to make transactions in multiple currencies without incurring international fees. If the account has an insufficient balance in the specified currency, Airwallex will automatically convert funds held in the account in other currencies.

PSCU/Co-op Solutions, a credit union service organization and provider of integrated financial technology software, has launched a digital lending suite in partnership with Amount, a US-based provider of financial technology. Origination Solutions, currently in the pilot phase with two credit unions, automates instant decisioning for account opening, lending and card origination.

Mastercard has realigned its teams centered on three interdependent areas of Core Payments, Commercial & New Payment Flows and Services. Jorn Lambert will lead Core Payments as Chief Product Officer. Raj Seshadri will lead Commercial & New Payment Flows as Chief Commercial Payments Officer. Craig Vosburg will lead Services as Chief Services Officer.

Comdata, a provider of commercial payments operating under the Corpay brand, has added the option of contactless transactions for both EV charging and ICE (internal combustion engine) fueling to its Chargepass Mastercard. Fleets receive one integrated invoice for both types of vehicles, and drivers use a single app to access the ‘tap-to-pay’ option.

Discover is collaborating with Google Cloud to introduce GenAI technology into its customer care centers with 10,000 agents. By training and tuning Google's large language models with a set of frequently asked questions along with their expected answers, Discover was able get Cloud's AI platform to provide intelligent document summarization and real-time search assistance using natural language. Discover also plans to enhance services that help with phone call transcription, categorization of incoming requests by topic, and customer sentiment analysis.

dLocal, a cross-border payment platform, has partnered with payroll and payments platform Papaya Global to enable companies to handle workforce payments globally. Mutual customers of the two companies can pay employees, partners, freelancers and suppliers in local currencies and in compliance with local regulations. The partnership is live in Latin America (Chile, Colombia and Mexico), Asia (Indonesia and Vietnam) and in Africa, with plans to expand to additional territories.

Everyware, a customer payments and engagement company, has launched its Identity Verification Solutions suite, which can be embedded into digital invoicing and payments processes. Transactions that do not pass verification are placed on hold immediately. The suite includes Identity Match, which conducts instant verification against Everyware’s US census and credit bureau dataset, and ID Document Verification, which allows businesses to send customers a secure link that guides them through the process of scanning and reviewing identification documents such as a driver’s license, passport or state issued ID.

PXP Financial, a global open financial and technology platform provider, has been accredited by Mastercard to become a Token Service Provider. The Mastercard Digital Enablement Service platform, which allows for the digitization of supported Mastercard card types, provides PXP Financial with a Secure Card on File tokenization program that PXP can offer to its customers.

Mesh Payments, a global provider of travel and expense management, has launched a guest travel service that simplifies booking and reimbursements for candidates, contractors and other guests. It allows those travelers to book their own itineraries rather than seek expense reimbursements, taking into account the compliance standards of global, multi-entity corporations.

Nuvei Singapore, a subsidiary of the Canadian fintech, has been granted a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The license enables Nuvei to operate domestic money transfers, cross-border money transfers and merchant acquisition services in the country.

Ant Group, along with 11 overseas payment partners and major international card organizations, has launched a program to build International Consumer Friendly Zones in major tourist and commercial cities in China. The zones are meant to support cross-border payments for purchases at a local merchants. Pakistani-based NayaPay has become the first fintech to participate by enabling payments through its app. Travelers can choose to link Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Discover and Diners Club cards to an Alipay app.

CorServ, provider of API-based issuer processing and program management services for credit, debit and prepaid cards to banks and fintechs, will launch a commercial credit card program for customers of Illinois-based Busey Bank. The bank had been in an agent bank program. CorServ enables Busey Bank to handle its own credit decisions and rebates.

EBA Clearing, owner of a pan-European infrastructure for instant payments in euro, will offer Verification of Payee at a pan-European level beginning December 2024. The service provides payment service providers (PSPs) with IBAN/name matching for their SEPA transactions, which will help them comply with mandates from The European Payments Council that require such services by October 9, 2025. Users who adopt Verification of Payee will also have access to its fraud-fighting feature called Fraud Pattern and Anomaly Detection.

Vroom Delivery, a digital commerce platform for convenience stores, has partnered with Finix, a payment processor and infrastructure provider, to create Pay360, an online payment service designed for the convenience store industry. Pay360 charges lower fees than typical online payment services such as Stripe or Braintree, and allows for the secure online sale of age-restricted items.

Sunrate, a global B2B platform, has added Apple Pay. As a principal member of Visa and Mastercard, it can settle payments in 15+ currencies, as well as customize card limits and expiration dates.