Top News In Payments: PayPal Further Integrates With MercadoLibre; Singtel, Grab To Launch Digital Bank In Singapore

In today’s top payments news, PayPal further integrates with Argentinian eCommerce company MercadoLibre, and Singtel and Grab partner to launch a digital bank in Singapore. Also, record holiday sales come with record returns.

PayPal Deepens LATAM Reach With MercadoLibre Integration

PayPal expanded its partnership with Argentinian eCommerce company MercadoLibre, positioning itself to capture a larger share of the Latin America market. MercadoLibre users in Brazil and Mexico will now be able to use PayPal for online checkout at merchants integrated with Mercado Pago, dubbed the “eBay of Latin America.”

Singtel, Grab Team Up To Launch Digital Bank In Singapore

Singtel and Grab are partnering to launch a digital full bank in Singapore. They aim to help the communities of Singapore that have traditionally been left behind in banking matters.

Record Holiday Sales Trigger Record $100B Returns

Deloitte anticipates about $1.1 trillion in returns on merchandise purchased between November and January, a 4.5 or 5 percent increase from 2018. About 5 billion pounds of returned goods will end up in landfills, according to returns logistics provider Optoro.

ClassPass Seeks $285M In Funding, Will Hit Unicorn Status

Fitness firm ClassPass is aiming to raise $285 million in a funding round that could bring its valuation to more than $1 billion. ClassPass offers monthly subscriptions through its mobile app that provide access to more than 300,000 gyms and fitness studios worldwide.

52 Monday Conversations About Payments In 2019

For some, Mondays are the end of a weekend. For others, they are the beginning of an exciting new week. For Karen Webster, it’s the start of a new conversation about payments and commerce. 52 Mondays 2019 is an eBook that features all of Webster’s commentaries — a look back at her take on the payments and commerce landscape as it unfolded. Dive in and take one last look at a year that wrapped up a decade of massive change across the payments landscape.

A Faster Payments Fix For School Invoice Woes

Sending paper-based invoices to parents who then hand in cash and check payments to the class teacher for expenses such as field trips is a costly and time-consuming process — something more than 98,000 U.S. public schools are all too familiar with. In the latest Faster Payment Tracker, Jerry Banks, CEO of educational transaction processing platform Bursari, discusses the potential of digital invoices and mobile payments in enabling educators to spend time teaching students rather than settling invoices.