Payday Lending, P2P And Innovation Topped The Week’s News

Were you able to keep up with all the news that happened this week? We at PYMNTS are here to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Both Visa and Mastercard made big moves, and Karen Webster took a withering look at the Loan Shark Prevention Act (with help from a time machine). More potential roadblocks to connected vehicles emerge, and new PYMNTS research dug deep into trade credits and corporate credit innovation.

Top Performers

Why Visa Brought Earthport Into Its Orbit

In payments, to gain technology, reach and new use cases (and, sometimes, all of the above), the debate has always boiled down to “build or buy.” To that end, Visa has taken the “buy” path, and said last week that it gained control of Earthport, having bought the U.K.-based firm for a reported $257 million in a deal announced late last year.

Mastercard Revs Its Payments Innovation Engine

The busy morning activity in a coffee shop resembles the new Mastercard innovation push. The effort, which could make life better for merchants, issuers and consumers, is described in-depth in a new PYMNTS interview between Karen Webster and Amnah Ajmal, Mastercard’s executive vice president of core products.

Why The Loan Shark Prevention Act Will Harm Consumers

Let’s hop into the time travel machine this Monday morning and go back to the year 1973. Here’s why. The proposed credit card interest rate cap legislation, courtesy of Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is in serious need of an almost half-century-old refresher course in the unintended consequences of price caps on the American consumer.

As P2P Payments Spreads Its Wings, Challenges Loom

The spotlight burned brighter for peer-to-peer (P2P) payment services in the first quarter of 2019, with those payment methods finding popularity among more consumers. However, P2P’s future growth will depend on solving problems related to data privacy and other issues – at least, according to some observers.

Visa Talks AI’s Global Impact

Mark Jamison, global head of innovation and design at Visa, took Karen Webster on a whirlwind tour of AI hotbeds around the globe, showing that science fiction need not cloud the valuable experiences the technology is bringing to any number of use cases.

Top Trackers and Reports

Trade Credit’s $3.1T Squeeze On U.S. Businesses

The new PYMNTS Trade Credit Dilemma Report found that trade credit places a severe strain on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and their ability to run daily operations and invest in their futures. The report also examined new payment platforms that could offer SMBs an alternative to the strain of extending trade credit.

Why FIs Are Laser-Focused on Corporate Credit Innovation

In the latest Innovation Readiness Playbook series, PYMNTS surveyed more than 200 FI decision makers to assess their shifting strategies for innovating this venerable product line. Corporate credit has long been a key part of FIs’ product portfolios, and it remains an innovation priority for FIs now and in the future, particularly for the top performers in the Playbook: 86.7 percent of these firms are investing in corporate credit products.

Fun, Cool and Otherwise Notable

The battle over payday lending – specifically, how tough U.S. federal rule will be in governing the industry – heated up as an important deadline loomed. Letters favorable to the payday lending industry reportedly were flooding in to authorities before the cutoff for public comment regarding a proposed policy change.

Bitcoin Gets Second (or Third, or Fourth) Wind

Bitcoin got a huge jump on Monday (May 13), up 25 percent on the day, though there was no news specific to the cryptocurrency. The recent market cap at $250 billion has not been seen since August of 2018. The financial news site said speculation on what’s behind the buoyancy has focused in part on possible short squeezes, or the fact that amid geopolitical tensions, people have crowded into alternative asset classes.

Connected Vehicles Race Toward 5G Future

As the connected vehicle ecosystem grows, the automobiles that are part of the effort are racing toward their 5G future – the new mobile technology promises to significantly boost payments and commerce for commuters and other drivers in the coming years. But a few roadblocks have to be navigated before that happens in full.