“BMO Bank of Montreal and Visa Canada have worked together to launch the new BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* and BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege credit cards. The new cards are designed to meet the everyday lifestyle needs of Canadians and provide greater earning potential and flexibility on rewards. The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite cards also leverage the bank’s refreshed BMO Rewards loyalty program and Visa’s brand, scale and global acceptance footprint, to bring customers a suite of best-in-class credit cards.”

“Brex introduced new features tailored to solving the cash flow pain points of growing ecommerce businesses. The launch of instant payouts and ecommerce-specific rewards alleviate growth barriers faced by ecommerce companies, and furthers Brex’s mission to reimagine financial systems so every company can realize its full potential. Brex’s new offering allows ecommerce companies instant access to revenue from sales on their online platforms—starting with Amazon, and soon expanding to other sales platforms.”

“American Express Co. said consumer retail spending improved in the third quarter, but spending on travel and entertainment remained substantially lower. Non-travel and non-entertainment spending—which made up about 70% of spending going into the pandemic—increased about 1% in the third quarter from a year earlier, Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Campbell said in an interview Friday. He said that climb was partly because of sizable online transactions growth.”

“The agreement between the two Austin companies, grants Netspend, a Global Payments company (NYSE: GPN), the rights to be the Club’s Official Jersey Sleeve Partner and newest Founding Partner, in addition to becoming the Official Digital Payment Partner of Austin FC and the Official Prepaid Debit Mastercard® provider. Netspend products and affiliated technologies will also be integrated within the stadium to enhance the speed and safety of food, beverage, and merchandise transactions.”

“NFC payments are quick, easy, and less germy than swiping a card — but they aren’t as widespread as one might think. Samsung uses magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology to make Samsung Pay available at almost any payment terminal around the world , even if the merchant doesn’t support NFC platforms like Google Pay or Apple Pay. Now the people behind that tech are back with a new product that promises to simplify the payment process for everyone.”

“The British Retail Consortium says the fees charged by payment firms have almost doubled in the last two years. They warn that retailers will be forced to pass on the extra costs to consumers, with credit card bills rising by another £40 a year. However, Mastercard questioned the BRC’s findings and said shops were paying less than five years ago.”

“Sam’s Club and Synchrony announced a multi-year extension of their strategic financing and credit card relationship that aims to drive incremental value to Sam’s Club Members by redesigning and enhancing the card rewards. As part of the extension, Synchrony will continue to issue, manage, and service the redesigned and recreated consumer and commercial credit card programs for Sam’s Club at the retailers’ almost 600 locations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico as well as on SamsClub.com.”

“Chase Auto and Subaru of America announced today the renewal of their private label agreement, extending Chase’s role as the private label finance provider for the auto manufacturer. Since 2001, Chase Auto has provided customized retail, lease and commercial services as well as strategic support to more than 630 Subaru retailers in the U.S. Through the brand Subaru Motors Finance, Chase has financed nearly four million Subaru drivers.”

“Just in time for the holiday season, leading gift card program manager Stored Value Solutions (SVS) introduces its Solutions B2B offering to retailers.  SVS Solutions B2B includes SVS acting as a sales agent and distributor for a number of large retailers including marquee household brands.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has left consumers uncertain about a lot of things — and chief among them is their future economic stability. Yet, rather than depending on credit to get by, in the first half of the year consumers paid down a record amount of credit card debt. We spoke with Beth Horowitz Steel, a Partner at Glenbrook Partners, to discuss this interesting development as well as other current trends within the financial world.”

“Petal , a credit card startup pioneering “Cashflow Underwriting” as an alternative to traditional credit scoring, announced on Thursday the launch of its new no-annual-fee Visa credit card, Petal 1. The new card is paired with a mobile app that will “deliver” various features, tools, and guidance for customers’ financial success.”

“Razer is piloting a new prepaid card program in partnership with Visa, and if you were wondering how the gaming peripheral maker would put its stamp on something so comparatively mundane to its usual offerings, the answer is LED lighting. Did you expect anything different?”

“British fintech Currensea is launching a first-of-its-kind open banking debit card for small businesses, enabling them to make international transactions through their existing bank account without any of the charges and with low fees competitive with the leading challenger banks.”

“Crypto exchange Coinbase is now offering “instant” withdrawals in nearly 40 countries, including the U.S. and the U.K. The new feature is being facilitated via Visa and Mastercard. Coinbase said its customers in the U.S., the U.K., and Europe would be able to withdraw funds with a linked Visa debit card. In the U.S., they will also be able to withdraw with their Mastercard.”

“Global Payments Inc GPN.N is exploring a sale of its Netspend unit, aiming to secure a valuation of more than $2 billion for the prepaid debit card business, three people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The parent, valued at $53 billion, is working with an investment bank on the potential divestment and began marketing Netspend to buyers last month, the sources said on condition of anonymity as the information is private.”

“Venmo today introduced its first-ever Venmo Credit Card, issued by Synchrony (NYSE: SYF ) and powered by the Visa network, which gives customers automatic cash back on every eligible purchase, a personalized rewards experience, and the ability to manage the card directly in the Venmo app. The card unlocks new ways for Venmo’s community of more than 60 million customers to shop, share or split purchases, and earn cash back – everywhere Visa® credit cards are accepted.”

“Marqeta, the global modern card issuing platform, today unveiled its new Tokenization-as-a-Service product , which allows any card issuer to access its industry leading tokenization technology. Marqeta’s Tokenization-as-a-Service, already being adopted by J.P. Morgan, is an industry-first offering allowing non-Marqeta card programs to benefit from its modern platform, tokenization expertise, and built-in certifications with digital wallets and the card networks, without interrupting their existing issuing processor relationships.”