Digital payments

Drive-thru is almost synonymous with fast food, but for some quick-serve chains — like Subway — a past emphasis on in-store dining meant a much sharper pivot when the coronavirus pandemic struck.

Bank bill-payment sites have become less relevant over the last decade as more people go to billers’ websites to pay directly or use billers' mobile apps — often at the last minute. But the COVID-19 pandemic could flip the script on the $4.6 trillion bill-payment sector.

For many U.S. cities and counties, the high number of walk-in payments and checks typically received for services, permits and fees has been aggravating but acceptable — until coronavirus struck.

COVID-19 has accelerated changes in payments behavior that would otherwise have taken years to occur, laying the foundation for global expansion post-pandemic. But for different parts of the world, this digital transformation had very different outcomes.

The humble QR code — invented for automobile manufacturing in 1994 — had been on the rise as a payment method for many years, but the pandemic expanded its use in the U.S. in some unforeseen ways.

The pandemic has upended many business tasks, creating a rush among processors to expand the digital experience without complicating it.

Dodger Stadium looks odd now — filled with fake crowd noise and cardboard cutout spectators — but in this downtime it's putting in an almost entirely invisible 5G wireless connection and new point of sale system.

Discover is working to help Black-owned businesses and other merchants maintain foot traffic — safely — through the use of the card network's payments technology and its marketing heft.

When the coronavirus pandemic forced teachers and students to move classroom learning online this year, school districts and educators suddenly faced a raft of challenges around handling new expenses for tools needed for cyber education.

One thing that many parents are finding unusual this year is the amount of money being spent on school supplies during the coronavirus crisis — it’s actually going up.

If the mega payments deals of 2019 left the acquiring landscape somewhat scorched, the COVID-19 pandemic planted new seeds to allow ISOs to grow by quickly converting merchants to electronic payments.

"It's on-demand capital for us," Optus Bank's CEO says of the payment company's deposit. The funds are part of PayPal's broader effort to confront race and income inequality.

Various efforts to limit cash were in motion well before the global health crisis, but merchant and consumer digital money habits being built during the pandemic will carry on for many years, thus leaving cash sidelined in many purchasing scenarios.

Amid the economic and health wreckage the COVID-19 global pandemic has created, payments have stepped to the forefront in a way that has allowed banks, merchants and consumers to not only continue to do business, but also to increase communication.

The COVID-19 pandemic has teed up a growth opportunity for the buy now, pay later (BNPL) financial industry, as recession worries made people receptive to entering short-term payment plans that can fit in a budget.

7-Eleven’s not a quick serve restaurant chain or an e-commerce marketplace, but it still found substantial use for its app as a way to quickly address the health worries of its customers.

The coronavirus outbreak initially looked like it might torpedo U.K.-based Paysafe’s plan to expand in the U.S. in 2020. But several months into the pandemic, the payments conglomerate sees ways it can grow by helping bruised small businesses retool operations.

Square's gross payment volume tumbled by 15% year-over-year due to COVID-19’s impact, but revenue jumped as online selling rose, Cash App doubled in users and Square enabled almost $900 million in PPP loans.

The point of sale terminal industry was already under pressure to go digital before the coronavirus pandemic made this transition much more crucial to its survival.

Western Union confirmed yet again that for a payments company to survive the coronavirus pandemic, it needed to enter the crisis with a strong footing in digital payments.