“A new study released today by B2B accounts receivable automation and integrated payments leader Billtrust examines Generation Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – and their evolving views and behaviors when it comes to digital payments and what these shifts mean for industries across the board. Billtrust’s 2022-23 Gen Z and Digital Payments Study — composed of a survey to 750 U.S.-based Gen Zers — illustrates how this generation’s use and view of payments has evolved since Billtrust’s last analysis in 2019. Perhaps not surprisingly, it appears that the pandemic’s impact and increased expectations for speed and convenience have given way to the rapid adoption of payments technologies favoring contactless experiences and instant gratification.”

“Galileo Financial Technologies, LLC, a leading financial technology company owned and operated independently by SoFi Technologies, Inc., announced a buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution with issuance of single-use virtual cards and complete loan servicing. Banks and fintechs will have access to the customizable Galileo Buy Now, Pay Later solution, offering them easy entry into the in-demand BNPL market and enabling greater spending power for their customers. The BNPL industry is forecasted to surpass 900 million global users by 2027 and offers a flexible way to shop and pay. However, non-bank BNPL providers offer the service based on very limited customer data, putting both the provider and the consumer at higher risk. With Galileo, clients and banks that provide Buy Now, Pay Later to their consumers will be offered financing through their bank or a sponsoring bank partner that considers the consumers’ financial health and ability for repayment. A real-time personalized offer is displayed in the bank’s or fintech’s mobile application. If the consumer accepts the loan offer, a prefunded, single-use virtual card will be added to their mobile wallet and presented in-store or online at most retailers.”

“When Melbourne barista Melinda Elliott had to cut back on casual work shifts this year, she asked her buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) provider, Afterpay, to lower her credit limit. She did not want debt she could not afford to repay. The Australian company, owned by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc, cut her limit to A$2,000 ($1,300) from A$3,000, but a few months later she added up the debts in her account and saw the limit had returned to A$3,000, the maximum available. “There was no email to say, ‘your credit limit’s gone up again’; it was out of nowhere,” said Elliott by phone. “I don’t want to spend more than what I actually make from working.” Elliott’s experience highlights a core feature of a startup business model that has disrupted consumer finance around the world. But that feature and others may soon be banned in Australia under a proposal to regulate BNPL with the same law that covers credit card and mortgage providers.  Whereas credit card issuers collect both interest payments and vendor fees, BNPL companies attract users by charging nothing for credit, instead relying almost entirely on revenue from retailers. By monitoring users’ repayment performance on generally small balances to control risk, they require no background checks, so signing up is easy and the companies’ costs are low.”

“As countries around the world race to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC), some jurisdictions have slowed down or dropped out of the race altogether. While many observers were pushing a narrative of urgency around CBDCs, some countries have decided that launching a CBDC isn’t currently necessary, while others have tested CBDCs only to dismiss them. Each country had its own reasons, with global central banks providing very different insights on why their CBDC-related project didn’t go well or didn’t need to launch in the first place. Cointelegraph has picked up four countries that have either stopped or paused their CBDC or CBDC-like initiatives based on publicly available data.”