WooCommerce Merchants Can Now Accept Crypto Payments

Mastercard has teamed with Binance to tap into the crypto company’s popularity in Brazil. The companies announced Monday (Jan. 30) they had launched a prepaid card in the South American country, one of Binance’s ten largest global markets. “The Binance card is part of the company’s ongoing efforts...

Shipium and Quiet Platforms have partnered to help eCommerce businesses improve delivery speed, cost and accuracy. Those that use both Shipium’s shipping platform for eCommerce and Quiet Platforms’ national delivery service network will get two- to three-day shipping and reduced shipping costs, the companies said in a Monday (Jan. 30) press release.

Nearly every day, it seems, some new scheme arises that’s aiming to replace or disrupt the existing global financial services system. Online payment platforms like PayPal begat cryptocurrencies which begat stablecoins which begat central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and now, per a recent PYMNTS report, CBDCs are begetting a Universal Digital Payments Network (UDPN) designed to translate real-time payment speed and minimal processing fees to international financial transactions that may one day use central bank-issued digital fiat.

Online grocery retailer Akwaaba has partnered with payments orchestration firm CellPoint Digital. Akwaaba is leveraging the firm’s payments orchestration solution to optimize its operations as it expands beyond the six countries in Africa and the Middle East in which it is already active, CellPoint Digital said in a Tuesday (Jan. 31) press release.

The London-based tech subscription startup Raylo has secured a £110 million ($135.64 million) loan. As reported by tech funding news on Tuesday (Jan. 31), the debt facility is provided by NatWest bank and Quilam Capital. According to the article, Raylo will use the funds to fuel its growth and expand its product portfolio.

Inflation has reduced the value of social security benefits to recipients. But there will be further cuts in the long run. Experts say the increasing needs of seniors are burdening small benefit reserves. Americans are living longer because of lower lifestyle risks. Life expectancy was 47 years in 1900 and it was 76 in 2021.

For the second year in a row, the UAE has topped PYMNTS’ Global Digital Shopping Index. The findings of the 2023 Global Digital Shopping Index, a PYMNTS and Cybersource collaboration, show that consumers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — compared to those in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, Mexico and India — experienced the least friction when shopping and paying for grocery and retail products.

Moov Financial has raised $45 million in Series B to expand its money movement platform. The funding round was led by Commerce Ventures, and the new capital will be used to grow both the platform and its utilization by customers, Moov said in a Tuesday (Jan. 31) press release. “We...

Eventus has debuted an anti-money laundering (AML) platform for traditional finance and digital asset companies. The Austin-based company, which provides transaction monitoring and market risk solutions, announced the cloud-based tool — dubbed Validus or VAML — in a news release Tuesday (Jan. 31). It comes in the wake of a year that saw a spike in fines levied against firms for failing to prevent money laundering and other financial crimes.

One of the worst-kept secrets in payments was finally confirmed last week. That’s when Early Warning Services (EWS) announced its plans to launch a digital bank wallet in the second half of 2023 to challenge PayPal and named a former Mastercard exec as the CEO to lead the initiative. EWS is the digital payments platform owned by Bank of America, Capital One, J.P. Morgan, PNC, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. EWS operates the Zelle P2P network.

If Sezzle CEO Charlie Youakim had to write a book about the FinTech bubble that burst in 2022, he’d call it “Crazy Money.”. That nugget came up in a conversation between Youakim and PYMNTS’ Karen Webster during the first discussion in the new series “FinTech Reset: The Pivot to Profitability.”

The metaverse has only just entered the mainstream discourse, but this new, immersive internet has already emerged as a lucrative new medium for generating revenue. Businesses as diverse as Gucci and FIFA already offer digitally savvy shoppers various new products accessible only via virtual reality headset. Their success paves the...

Andy McHale, senior director, product and market strategy with Spreedly, told PYMNTS there’s the temptation to view credit cards as the primary method of paying for things — at the in-person point of sale or online. “But that doesn’t work for every individual, or every ecosystem or across...

The payments industry’s collective responsibility is to lessen the B2B money movement burden across industries and the globe, Visa SVP Darren Parslow writes in the new PYMNTS eBook, “2023 Payments New Year’s Resolutions.”. At Visa, we’re anointing 2023 the year of B2B Payments 3.0. According to...

The accounts receivable function is broken. The paper-based processes that have been AR hallmarks have been inefficient at best and punitive to cash flow management at worst. The great digital shift was supposed to fix all that, but this has not been the case — mainly because that shift has not been uniform across the globe.

Among banks and FinTechs, there’s recognition of the value inherent in receipt data. That granular detail can help forward-thinking firms craft and offer more customized services and products to their customers. The report “Meeting the Need for Item-Level Receipt Data: How Integration Enables Innovation,” a PYMNTS and Banyan collaboration,...

Worldline has announced an extended card issuing and processing arrangement with ING. The French multinational payment company said in a Monday (Jan. 30) press release that it has signed a new multiyear contract to provide debit and credit card issuing and processing services for the Dutch bank across multiple countries.

123Loadboard has added carrier identity verification to its freight matching platform. This new feature streamlines and accelerates digital freight booking by enabling brokers and shippers to immediately determine if a carrier is a verified, legitimate business partner, 123Loadboard said in a Tuesday (Jan. 31) press release. “Our focus has always...

Network International is reportedly in advanced talks to purchase UAE lender Mashreqbank’s payment business. The deal could value Mashreq’s payments operation at as high as $700 million, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (Feb. 1), citing unnamed sources. A spokesperson for Network International declined to comment when reached by PYMNTS Wednesday...

Egypt’s MNT-Halan has raised $400 million at a valuation of over $1 billion. The funding was announced by the Cairo-based FinTech on Monday (Feb. 1). The largest chunk of the fresh capital was from Chimera Abu Dhabi, which has invested more than $200 million in exchange for over 20% of the company, MNT-Halan said.