Dear Subscriber,

In today’s newsletter we take a closer look at the latest card payments data from the UK Card Association, which found that just under 20% of all card payments are now being made on contactless, nearly triple the amount compared to last year.

Whilst contactless cards may be strong in the UK, it’s cash that’s going for Olympic gold in Brazil, writes Fiserv’s director of Product management in her blog post.

To round the newsletter off, we look at what Square’s very strong Q2 means for the company and the industry as a whole.

Enjoy!

Just under twenty percent of all card purchases are now being made on contactless cards, according to new data from the UK Cards Association.

Square’s numbers moved in the right directions last quarter, providing co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey with some welcome ammunition to hit back at critics of his decision to lead two major technology businesses at the same time.

Danish blockchain firm Coinify has raised $4m in funding for its blockchain payments platform from Nordic backers including return investor Seed Capital and Swedish bank SEB’s venture capital arm.

In this guest blog, Micki Nguyen, director of Product Management, Cash & Logistics, Fiserv, talks about the importance of having a reliable cash strategy during mass sporting events such as the Rio Olympics.