Western Union Reports Revenue Bump and other Digital Transactions News briefs

• Apple Inc., in its results for the second quarter ending April 1, said Apple Pay is available now in 15 markets, having launched in Taiwan and Ireland in March. Globally, that includes 20 million contactless-ready locations, of which 4.5 million are in the United States, said chief executive Tim Cook during a conference call with analysts. Cook also said that global transaction volume increased 450% in the past 12 months, but provided no total numbers.

• The Western Union Co. reported first-quarter revenue of $1.3 billion, up 3% on a constant-currency basis from the same quarter a year ago. GAAP profit was $240 million. Its online business, WesternUnion.com, saw transactions increase 27%. The company now has its mobile app in 18 markets, allowing consumers to send cash to more than 200 countries and territories.

• Malauzai Software, a vendor of online and mobile-banking solutions to community banks, said it will launch Family Manager: SmartKid Control in collaboration with processor Vantiv Inc. The tool allows families to monitor payments and control spending by children.

• Mastercard Inc. announced an expanded relationship with General Motors Co. under which customers at more than 4,000 U.S. Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac dealerships will be able to order and pay for parts, Maven car-sharing services, OnStar guidance, and other products and services using Mastercard’s payment gateway.

• Enterprise-software vendor Salesforce Inc. launched the Salesforce AppExchange Partner Program, intended to help startups and independent software developers (ISVs) sell payment apps and other tools into the Salesforce market.

• Sabre Corp., which provides software and technology services to the travel industry, including 32,000 hotels and other lodging establishments, disclosed in a regulatory filing that it is “investigating an incident involving unauthorized access to payment information,” KrebsOnSecurity reported. The breach occurred in a subset of hotel reservations processed on Sabre’s Hospitality Solutions SynXis Central Reservations system, the company said.

• Payments provider Payscape announced it is working with data provider Womply to offer data services to merchants.

• The National Retail Federation urged the House Financial Services Committee to stop efforts to repeal the Durbin Amendment to the 2010 Dodd Frank Act. Debate began Tuesday in the House on the Financial Choice Act, a bill that would repeal Durbin as part of a larger rollback of Dodd-Frank. A vote by the full House is expected later this month.

• VeriFone Systems Inc. said PrivatBank, a Ukraine acquirer, agreed to a three-year deal to use VeriFone point-of-sale devices.