As more shopping moves online, the user base of buy now, pay later (BNPL) schemes has grown. But The Strawhecker Group's new payment gateway directory reported that fewer than 20 percent of gateways can support BNPL transactions.
It's not as bad as it seems, however, since that majority of online transactions flow through just a handful of gateways, and those gateways offer BNPL functionality, noted Alex Ferguson, market intelligence manager at TSG. "One of the main difficulties some gateways are grappling with in offering BNPL functionality is primarily debt liability that they don't have an appetite to deal with," Ferguson said.
Banks and credit unions are leveraging digital technologies to deepen customer relationships, according to new studies by Engageware and J. D. Power. Engageware released its second annual Engage 2023: Customer Engagement in Banking, Annual Trends Report.
Based on surveys conducted by Infosurv, the study examined the efficacy of current customer service initiatives across the U.S. financial services landscape, according to Caroline Platkiewicz, senior marketing manager at Engageware. "In today's challenging economic climate, financial institutions need to be closely attuned to the changing needs and preferences of their customers," Platkiewicz said.
A bipartisan bill that would dictate how credit card payments get routed appears to be dead for now. Nevertheless, a conservative business group launched a seven-figure advertising campaign that likens the proposal to a ban on credit card rewards.
"Millions of American families and businesses rely on their credit card benefits for travel, dining, shopping and cash back," said Gentry Collins, CEO at American Free Enterprise Action. "The Credit Card Competition Act would strip American consumers of billions of dollars a year in benefits—resulting in less travel and less spending. It will also hurt the millions of American small business owners and local towns that rely on these benefits the most."
The Credit Card Competition Act was penned ostensibly to lower merchant processing fees through competition in the form of network choice.
While lawyers were sorting out disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's extradition status, partners in the O'Melveny & Myers law firm shared perspectives on potential fallout from the situation. Bankman-Fried, known as SBF, founded the now bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange and related hedge fund Alameda Research.
SBF was indicted and arrested in the Bahamas and is facing multiple counts of investor and consumer fraud in the United States, along with civil lawsuits filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Sid Mody, a partner in O'Melveny's White Collar & Corporate Investigations Group, offered views on the charges against SBF and what might come next in prosecution. 
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