Payments executives John Macllwaine and Kin Kee, who served as general manager and director of architecture, respectively, at Braintree, a PayPal brand, unveiled Highnote, a new card platform designed for small and midsize businesses (SMBs).

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It looks like the year-end holiday season will bring plenty of joy for merchants, and by extension, merchant services professionals. Two separate reports—one from Mastercard, the other from Fiserv—project a notable retail sales bump between mid October and late December, including purchases of luxury items and gift cards.

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The Electronic Transactions Association hosted its fifth annual Fintech Policy Forum on Sept. 23, 2021. Designed to highlight legislative and regulatory issues impacting payments industry stakeholders, this year's virtual event brought together policymakers and payment leaders, stated Jodie Kelley, chief executive officer at the ETA.

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Nacha published new guidance on authorizations on Sept. 17, 2021, expanding ACH acceptance into new technologies and channels. The ruling, termed "Meaningful Modernization," enables consumers to authorize future non-recurring ACH transactions by voice or in writing, Nacha representatives stated. Specialists from across the payments industry expressed support for the new ruling.

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The U.S. Department of Justice indicted four individuals, including several executives of a Los Angeles-based payment processing company, for conspiring to deceive banks into allegedly processing more than $150 million in credit and debit card payments on behalf of 100 sham merchants. The sham merchants were engaged in online gaming, debt collection, debt relief, online pharmaceuticals and payday lending, alleged to have been misclassified as legitimate businesses to secure processing services.

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Media outlets have used the words "average," "normal," "regular" and "tourists," to describe the civilians currently orbiting the earth every 90 minutes on a SpaceX Dragon, but there is nothing ordinary about the Inspiration4 crew and its mission commander Jared Isaacman, founder and chief executive officer of Shift4. The three-day orbital flight, financed and led by Isaacman, is set to splash down off the coast of Florida on or around Sept. 18, 2021, depending on weather, according to SpaceX representatives.

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The Sept. 13, 2021, reopening of FinovateFall in New York City drew thousands of exhibitors and attendees. The popular conference and a flurry of investment rounds and M&A activity reflect a vibrant fintech community, stated David Penn, research analyst with The Finovate Group.

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On Sept. 8, 2021, Positive Technologies issued a press release regarding three vulnerabilities in PAX S920 and D210 terminals. Artem Ivachev, the company's researcher and reverse engineer, commended PAX for promptly addressing these issues, urging users to install the manufacturer's software patches immediately to protect transactions.

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To the list of trends accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, add demand for faster payments. Results of a survey released recently by the Federal Reserve reveal that three out of every four business now consider it important to offer faster payments. Nine out of 10 expect to be able to send and receive faster payments by 2023; many are already doing so.

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Roman Tazetdinov, head of geo expansion, digital commerce at Worldline Global, shared insights with The Green Sheet about Russia's economy and its ecommerce opportunities for U.S. acquirers. Following are highlights from the interview.

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A recent survey by PayNearMe reflects demand for faster, simpler and more personalized bill pay applications. The report, How Consumers Pay Bills: Expectations vs. Reality, based on a survey of 2,676 U.S. consumers, found widespread discontent with existing bill payment options and features, researchers found.

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