International gross transactions (GTX) for Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards grew an adjusted 11.8% year-on-year (YOY) in the first quarter (1Q/17). International unadjusted GTX for credit cards increased 22.5% YOY while international unadjusted GTX for debit cards soared an unadjusted 62.4% YOY in 1Q/17, according to CardData. The data are skewed by the…
U.S. Credit Cards-in-Force (CIF) among the Top 4 issuers jumped 12.4% year-on-year (YOY) at the end of the first quarter (1Q/17) to an estimated 265.3 million cards, compared to 258.7 million in 4Q/16, and 236.1 million for 1Q/16, according to CardData. Citibank blew the other three top issuers away in the first quarter, growing four…
Money transfers and payment services are continuing to lead the FinTech charge, with adoption standing at 50% in 2017 and 88% of consumers anticipating doing so in the future. The current adoption rate among US consumers is slightly higher at 52%. The new services that have contributed to this upsurge include online digital-only banks and…
In Germany 75% of adults still use paper currency and coins to make purchases at least once a week. vs. 64% of British adults, 58% of American adults, 48% of French adults, 47% of Israeli adults. By contrast, Israeli adults are most likely to use a mobile banking app at least once a month (e.g., to…
The ongoing roadblock for legal marijuana enterprises has been a lack of banking options, which forces these businesses to conduct cash transactions. Therefore, the cannabis industry has identified bitcoin digital currency as an ideal solution to the numerous challenges of the ‘unbankable’ marijuana industry and is creating a proprietary bitcoin payment solution that can be…
Mastercard has added API’s for Masterpass QR, Qkr! With Masterpass and chatbot solutions to its ever growing developer tool box to arm banks, retailers and digital providers with what they need to enable payments on new platforms. There are now more than 40 APIs focused on payments, data services and security available to developers. Mastercard…