Payments

Everyware, a text-based billing company reports strong demand for installment loans — due in part to the immediacy with which people respond to messages that pop up on their phones.

Klarna Bank, which advertises itself as a way to spread the cost of the latest brands and smartphones, is shelling out loans for milk and gas with cash-strapped customers looking for ways to cover basic necessities.

Pushes for transparency on charitable donations and ghost guns, among others, were voted down.

The California tech giant's take on pay-in-four installment loans has a top-of-wallet positioning that banks and merchants are unlikely to be able to match.

A more active Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, competition from Big Tech and sanctions on Russia are combining to make compliance a much larger concern than in the past, according to legal experts who spoke at American Banker's Payments Forum.

Teaming with the fintech Buy It Mobility Networks, Discover Financial Services plans to enable Automated Clearing House payments within merchant apps.

Now that JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Capital One and others offer the alternative credit option, the startups that created this market are adding products to cement their hold on consumers and merchants.

The tech entrepreneur has been increasingly focused on Bitcoin, a key growth area for the payments company he co-founded.

Roger Hochschild predicts consumers will keep using their Discover cards in the months ahead, particularly when shopping online.

Using data aggregation subsidiary Finicity, the card network will allow its bank and credit union partners to offer installment loans directly to consumers, who can repay from checking and savings accounts.