Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency plans continued to dominate the week’s news, but Visa and Bank of America both made big news, and new PYMNTS research dug deep into the problems of HBO and Netflix subscriber churn and PSD2 challenges. Meanwhile, P2P payments are seeing a new area of growth. All that and more in this latest edition of the PYMNTS Weekender.
Top News
Visa Buys Rambus Payments To Tokenize Any Transaction On Any Network
Visa has inked a deal to buy the token services and ticketing business of chipmaker Rambus The assets acquired were formerly known as Bell ID and Ecebs Ltd. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Mastercard On Facebook’s Libra Crypto Payments Future
For Mastercard, one of the founding members of the Libra project, what is happening now is both extremely new and somewhat familiar.
Visa Launches Installment APIs For Issuers and Merchants
This offering is the latest set of APIs made available to issuers and FinTech firms via the Visa Next “digital-first” platform offering.
BofA Debuts Digital Debit Card
Bank of America is launching a digital debit card. It’s also making other additions to its banking app to help customers handle their finances while they’re on the move.
Payments Execs Weigh In On Innovation For the Roaring 2020s
A decade is a nice, round number — a convenient marker for what has come and what is coming. We as humans tend to measure our lives in decades, referring to ourselves as children of the ’60s, perhaps, or pining wistfully for the synthesized pop sounds of the ’80s.
Trackers and Reports
How Netflix and HBO Reduce Subscriber Churn
In late May, millions of fans streamed the finale of the popular fantasy series Game of Thrones (GoT). When the series ended, however, HBO faced a different kind of battle: how to keep millions of fans subscribed to its streaming service in the post-GoT era.
In the PSD2 Age, Banks Must Think Like FinTech Firms
With the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) compliance deadline less than four months away, banks are still underprepared. While banks continue to open their application programming interfaces (APIs) to third-party providers and FinTech firms, many are still in the dark when it comes to SCA. Merchant partners are also scrambling, with just 40 percent of merchants within the EU currently stating they will be ready by September 2019.
Fun, Cool and Otherwise Interesting
Hotels, and India’s Middle Class, Show Path For Online Travel
It’s a fool’s errand to predict what will interest historians decades or centuries from now, but the scribes here at PYMNTS don’t pull back from such challenges. When it comes to retail, general commerce and online payments, the increasingly powerful middle class in India will probably get major credit in future textbooks for shaping the global digital economy.
P2P Payments Find Fans In the Black Market
Peer-to-peer (P2P) payments continue to gain popularity among consumers, with two of the biggest providers, Zelle and Venmo, reporting ongoing and significant gains. But amid that growth is a fresh trend that could present challenges for law enforcement — the use of such payment methods for illicit transactions, including drug deals.
Delivering Regional Flavor With State-Specific Subscriptions
To offer shoppers a curated selection of local products ranging from décor to local flavors, eCommerce innovators are assembling subscription boxes around different U.S. states.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
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