All articles tagged with #digital payments
Apple’s iOS 27 update significantly expands the capabilities of the Wallet app, allowing users to digitize physical passes and split bills via receipt scanning. The update introduces manual pass creation, recurring payment tracking, and a new discovery hub for wallet features.
India’s currency in circulation is growing at double-digit rates even as UPI-based digital payments surge toward a billion transactions a day, a phenomenon experts call the 'cash paradox.' The RBI’s stock of about 176 billion banknotes, with tens of billions printed annually and a large distribution network, underscores cash’s enduring roles as store of value and hedge against system failures, as well as its use in small, private, or unrecorded transactions. Factors like demonetisation’s long tail, demand for privacy, rural access, and the cost of maintaining cash infrastructure help explain why cash remains vital even as digital payments expand. Policymakers face the challenge of balancing investment in cash handling with promoting digital adoption, and innovations like polymer notes could reduce replacement costs.
Despite fewer checks in use, paper checks are a rising fraud target: in 2025, losses from check fraud surpassed those from debit and gift-card scams as criminals steal, wash, or create checks, often exploiting the sender’s account and routing numbers. The article notes that e-payments and bank portals are typically safer, though no method is risk-free. Practical tips include using secure checks with anti-fraud features, permanent ink, filling in all fields, mailing from the post office, tracking the check, reviewing images, and reporting fraud promptly to recover funds and deter thieves.
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the world’s biggest instant-payment network, could start charging merchants a small merchant-discount rate (MDR) on larger transactions to fund its infrastructure, while consumer payments remain free. Proposals center on 0.3-0.5% MDR for transactions above a threshold (around 2,000 rupees), a move that would affect only a minority of volumes but a large share of value. Studies warn that even small fees could deter small and informal merchants and slow UPI’s expansion, risking its network effects. The government aims to balance sustainability with broad access, drawing on examples like Brazil’s Pix, and emphasizes careful design to protect marginal merchants.
PayPal is reportedly facing a take-private bid around $53 billion from Stripe and Advent International, with the board seeking more than $60.50 a share and weighing whether the company should remain intact or be broken up for asset sales. The move comes as PayPal lags rivals like Apple Pay and struggles to accelerate growth, prompting questions about value as a single entity versus its components (e.g., Venmo). Stripe and Advent have reportedly lined up about $17 billion in equity and $50 billion in financing, though competing bids seem unlikely.
EU institutions are advancing a central bank–issued digital euro to broaden public payments across the bloc, signaling regulators may favor European payment solutions and potentially reduce reliance on global card networks like Mastercard. While not an immediate displacement, the digital euro could influence fees, data access, and payment routing in Europe, impacting Mastercard's cross-border volumes and economics over time. Investors should monitor regulatory developments and how Europe-derived revenue could be affected as designs and timelines firm up.
Europe’s Parliament backed the ECB’s plan for a digital euro, a central-bank–guaranteed digital wallet intended to reduce reliance on U.S. card networks. Final approval is expected this year, with a 12-month pilot starting in 2027 and a full rollout by 2029. Draft rules would cap holdings, ban interest, and place a four-to-six billion euro cost footprint on four years, amid concerns about deposit flight and how banks would be compensated, as private-sector alternatives loom. Outside the euro area, countries are testing digital currencies, while the U.S. stance under Trump-era policy could shape the global payments landscape.
Visa is integrating its payments network with ChatGPT to let AI agents shop and pay for users, using guardrails like spending limits, required approvals, and approved merchants to curb fraud; Mastercard is rolling out similar AI-shopping capabilities, highlighting a broader push by banks and retailers into AI-enabled commerce.
Voters in Switzerland approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to use cash (franc banknotes and coins), with 73.4% in favor. The move, championed by the Swiss Freedom Movement, aligns Switzerland with Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia in protecting cash as a legal right, amid a broader push toward digital payments. Cash usage in Switzerland has fallen over the years, but supporters say access to cash should be safeguarded.
The U.S. dollar’s long-standing status as a global safe haven faces headwinds from rising debt costs, sanctions and tariffs, prompting investors to seek alternatives like gold and, increasingly, Europe’s push toward non-dollar digital payments (e.g., Wero). Foreign holders of U.S. Treasuries have fallen, China is diversifying into gold, and analysts warn the dollar could weaken further over time, though the timing remains uncertain.
PayPal’s stock fell about 20% after it posted slowing growth in its branded-checkout business and announced a dramatic leadership change, naming Enrique Lores of HP as the new CEO effective March 1. Q4 branded-checkout growth slowed to 1% (currency-adjusted) from ~5% in the prior two quarters, with weakness in U.S. retail, international headwinds and tough comps cited. The company guided to a low-single-digit decline in adjusted EPS for the year, while pushing initiatives to boost a faster, biometrics-enabled checkout and capitalize on Pay With Venmo and BNPL to reignite growth. For Q4, payment volume was $475 billion (up 6% currency-neutral), revenue $8.68 billion, and adjusted EPS $1.23, missing some expectations.
The Marshall Islands has launched the world's first national universal basic income scheme offering payments via cryptocurrency and traditional methods, aiming to support citizens amid rising costs. The program, funded by a US-backed trust, provides quarterly payments of about $200, with most recipients choosing bank deposits or checks, and a small number opting for digital wallets. While innovative, the scheme faces challenges related to internet connectivity and governance, and its long-term success remains uncertain.
PayPal has introduced PayPal links, a new feature allowing users to send and receive money via personalized, one-time links that can be shared across conversations, with plans to expand internationally and integrate crypto payments directly into the P2P flow, enhancing the ease and security of digital transactions globally.
The SSA will stop issuing paper checks for Social Security benefits starting September 30, 2025, transitioning to digital payments via direct deposit or a prepaid debit card, a move aimed at cost savings with minimal impact on beneficiaries.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end the issuance of paper Social Security checks by September 30, 2025, moving the program towards digital payments, affecting less than 1% of beneficiaries who still receive paper checks.