Bloomberg Visa Inc had to shell out more money to entice banks to issue their cards on the company’s network. The firm set aside $1.69 billion in incentives for banks during its fiscal fourth quarter, a 13% increase from a year ago, that topped the $1.51 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The world’s largest payments network — …

Bloomberg Mobile payment startup Stripe began operations in Mexico, after the launch of a similar central bank-backed system aimed at boosting the amount of digital payments used in the nation’s cash-heavy economy. Stripe, used by companies including Uber Technologies, touts a key difference between it and CoDi, as Banxico-backed cobro digital is known: Its users can make and take payments …

Bloomberg Jane Fraser ascended to the No. 2 job at Citigroup, putting her in position to succeed Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat and become the first woman to lead a major US bank. The behemoth lender named Fraser as president and handed her responsibility for consumer banking, one of its thorniest turnaround efforts in recent years. Corbat moved to keep …

Bloomberg Google lured billions of consumers to its digital services by offering copious free cloud storage. That’s beginning to change. The Alphabet Inc unit has whittled down some free storage offers in recent months, while prodding more users towards a new paid cloud subscription called Google One. That’s happening as the amount of data people stash online continues to soar. …

Bloomberg Following fits and starts, Apple Pay has become the top mobile payment method at brick-and-mortar stores in the US, according to research firm EMarketer. Apple Inc’s payment service will have 30.3 million users in the US this year, compared with 25.2 million for the Starbucks payment app, EMarketer estimated. Starbucks Corp had been the leader, with innovative features that …

Bloomberg Flying taxis, once the purview of science-fiction films such as The Fifth Element, might soon be a staple of urban transport, as better batteries and innovative designs make it cheaper, cleaner, and quieter to travel short distances by air. Citigroup thinks sales of air taxis could reach $5 billion a year by the end of the next decade. Two …

Bloomberg Amazon.com said it has acquired Health Navigator, a medical technology startup, in an effort to bolster its healthcare offerings for employees. The startup will be wrapped into a clinic for workers that launched last month at the company’s Seattle-based headquarters. Called Amazon Care, the programme offers virtual and in-person consultations, and delivery of prescriptions to employees’ offices and homes. …

Bloomberg Spirit Airlines Inc agreed to buy 100 Airbus SE A320neo family aircraft, handing the European planemaker a potential order in the $11 billion range during a weak year for sales. The memorandum of understanding would include a mix of all three of Airbus’s workhorse single-aisle models, from the A319neo to the A321neo, Spirit said in a statement. If the …

Bloomberg It’s not often that an airline decides to design its own airplane. On Sunday, United Airlines Holdings Inc will fly customers on a new regional jet crafted to its exact specifications, an aircraft that comes with 10 first- class seats. By putting premium perches on a small regional jet with a total of only 50 seats, United hopes to …

Bloomberg Billionaire UK entrepreneur Richard Branson said opponents of Brexit should hold out for a second referendum and not be seduced into backing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s revised deal with the European Union. Concern about avoiding a no-deal split combined with a sense of fatigue surrounding the Brexit debate more than three years after the original vote to quit the …