Mastercard, Visa introduces 'Click to Pay' online checkout in Canada

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Mastercard, Visa, and American Express are working together to bring its "Click to Pay" online checkout to Canada and other countries for a more straightforward online checkout experience. Aside from simplicity, it secures online transactions across the web and mobile sites by taking out the time-consuming entry of personal account numbers and information. The feature is meant to mirror the checkout process in physical stores where a single terminal accepts different cards.

With the increase of e-commerce activity, Click to Pay hopes to offer a consistent online experience through all types of digital channels. The press release didn't state when it will be available, but the companies said they started technical preparations for its launch.

Mastercard and Dream Payments speed up insurance payments

Mastercard  announced a global partnership with Canadian-based Dream Payments aimed at getting insurance customers paid quickly, simply and securely. Northbridge Financial, a Fairfax company, will be the first insurance provider in Canada to use the Mastercard Send platform through the Dream Payments Hub, followed by international markets.

Mastercard Send is a global push payments platform designed to work with banks, businesses, digital players, governments and money transfer services, helping them to modernize the way they send money, both domestically and cross-border.

Both Mastercard and Dream Payments share a vision where insurance policyholders will receive fast payments into any payment card or account, when they need it most.

Mastercard wants to get rid of having to sign for credit and debit card purchases by 2018

Signing off on credit and debit card purchases in this day and age feel like such an archaic activity in this day and age. And Mastercard acknowledges this as fact. According to the company, now there are only about 20 percent of its transactions in North America still need cardholders to sign for purchases. Mastercard is looking to eliminate this altogether by April next year—for both credit and debit transactions.

With the introduction of technologies like the card’s chip, tokens, biometrics, and digital platforms with better security, there shouldn’t be a concern about security. Mastercard claims most people aren’t even concerned about the loss of signatures. This move, in fact, could reduce time spent at store checkouts as well as reduce costs.

Source: Mastercard

MasterCard brings contactless payment support to Fitbit Ionic

Fitbit just unveiled its newest smartwatch, the Fitbit Ionic, and brings with it a slew of new features. With that, MasterCard just announced that the new wearable will get contactless payment support, which it says is available at over 6.6 million merchants around the world. You just have to add your eligible cards to the fitness watch. The payment feature will first come to the US with participating issuer banks and will come to other markets soon after.