Meta’s metaverse fees elicit creator scrutiny

Meta, Facebook’s parent group, announced that it’s rolled out payments products on its metaverse platform Horizon Worlds. Combined, its various sales fees could lead to Meta taking up to 47.5% of creator profits.

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Walmart poaches PayPal CFO

The retail giant announced John Rainey, current CFO at PayPal, as its next finance head. He will start the job on June 6.

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Apple Pay top payments app for teens

According to a survey of 7100 teenagers by Piper Sandler, Apple Pay saw the most monthly users among teens than any other payments app. It beat out competitors like Venmo, Cash App, and PayPal in terms of market share among teenagers.

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The crypto industry is writing its own laws

Investigative work by the New York Times revealed that lawmakers in at least six states have worked directly with crypto lobbyists to draft legislation. Some bills copy-paste wording directly from lobbyists’ proposals.

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Indian payments body dismisses Coinbase launch

The National Payments Corporation of India, which maintains the country’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), released a voluntary statement saying it did not know of any crypto exchange using UPI. This came after Coinbase announced its launch in the country featuring UPI support.

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Meta restarts currency plans

Internal memos suggest Meta, which owns Facebook, has plans to add virtual coins, tokens, and lending to its apps. This includes “social” or “reputation” tokens that reward substantive contributions to Facebook groups.

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Visa faces antitrust suit over network fees

Yesterday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated two counts in an antitrust suit against Visa related to its debit card fees for payment processing networks. The plaintiff, Pulse Network LLC, argues that Visa’s fixed monthly fees for using its debit network encouraged payments processors to favor Visa over other card networks.

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Uber gears up for super app launch

The rideshare giant said it will soon add plane, train, and rental-car booking to its app in the U.K. It also said it may scale these services beyond the U.K. if the new services gain traction.

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What’s Egypt’s long game with InstaPay?

What’s Egypt’s long game with InstaPay?

Launched on March 23 by Egypt’s central bank, InstaPay permits electronic transfers from accounts belonging to different banks. 13 banks currently use the app and run on its Instant Payment Network (IPN).

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Apple eyes building its own payments tech

Apple eyes building its own payments tech

A multiyear plan would help the computing giant develop its own infrastructure for financial products. It would facilitate new approaches to payment processing, risk assessment for lending, fraud analysis, credit checks, and more.

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Visa and Mastercard still work in Russia. How?

Visa and Mastercard still work in Russia. How?

Both payments processors had previously announced that that they would stop doing business in Russia. But their cards still work within the country, because Visa and Mastercard were forced to switch to Russia’s domestic payments-processing system in 2015.

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Wells Fargo, Bilt announce credit card for renters

Wells Fargo, Bilt announce credit card for renters

The Bilt Mastercard lets renters earn rewards on rent payments, and use rewards points for down payments. For the first time, tenants can also pay rent through credit cards without transaction fees.

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The hidden costs of paycheck advances

The hidden costs of paycheck advances

According to the Financial Health Network, more than 70% of pay-advance users have taken out several advances in a row. Predatory data collection and obscure cash-limit algorithms further affect consumers within this $12B industry.

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Tencent eyes holding company for WeChat Pay

Tencent eyes holding company for WeChat Pay

The Chinese tech giant said it is looking into whether Chinese regulators will force it to house its financial businesses in a holding company. Two financial holding company licenses have recently been issued in the country.

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Nium debuts SWIFT alternative

Nium debuts SWIFT alternative

The global payments firm launched a new brokerage payments solution that lets international FIs settle transactions with certain U.S. brokerages. This system is up to 90% cheaper for customers than SWIFT.

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