Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Square, the point-of-sale and e-commerce unit of Block Inc., is the latest technology provider to turn up the heat in the already hotly competitive restaurant POS market. It announced Tuesday the launch of Square KDS, a kitchen-display system on the Android operating platform, and the debut of Square for Franchises, …

Paysafe Ltd. has been all about growth since Bruce Lowthers took over a year ago as chief executive, and on Tuesday he contended the London-based processor is expanding nicely in its key wallet and iGaming markets. “We returned to growth in the second half of 2022,” Lowthers told equity analysts …

Payments provider ACI Worldwide Inc. said it has completed testing and certification necessary to participate in the Federal Reserve’s FedNow real-time payment service, set to launch in July. Identity-verification specialist Veriff said it will provide its services through processor MassPay’s payments-orchestration platform. Warning of more fraud as peer-to-peer and real-time payments gain volume, technology firm ComplyAdvantage launched Fraud Detection, which …

Mitek Systems Inc., a provider of identity-verification technology, is teaming up with DarkTower, the cyber-intelligence division of Davidson, N.C.-based IT consultancy Queen Associates, to combat account fraud and identity theft. The partnership grew out the increasing role criminal marketplaces on the dark Web are playing in account and check fraud, …

Jack Henry & Associates Inc., one of the earliest participants in the Federal Reserve’s nascent FedNow real-time payments platform, said early Monday it is “operationally ready” to support the service when it launches commercially in July. The Monett, Mo.-based processor said more than 20 client institutions are set to connect …

Fifth Third Bancorp said it has closed on its acquisition of Big Data LLC, a technology platform for health-care payments. Terms were not disclosed Mark Barnett, president of Mastercard Inc. for Europe, said card interchange “represents incredibly good value” with respect to “sharing the costs and benefits of the payment system.” The remarks …

Capchase, which provides funding to software-as-a-service companies without requiring them to give up an ownership stake, has launched a buy now, pay later financing option that allows SaaS vendors to collect the full contract value for their applications while providing customers with flexible payment terms. Capchase developed the BNPL payment …

Online merchants today are faced with a difficult dilemma. They often operate with limited resources, which is especially true for independent retailers with smaller budgets. To expand their businesses, these merchants must carefully manage their financial and human resources, especially in the highly competitive world of e-commerce. So, here’s a …

Point-of-sale terminal maker PAX Technology Inc. released its Elys Workstation, a configurable POS device. It features a 14-inch screen, front-facing camera, and operates on the Android system. It can be paired with multiple PAX payment acceptance terminals. PayPal Holdings Inc.’s stock has traded in the mid-$60s range for days following a plunge early …

Payroc WorldAccess LLC has acquired Atlantic Merchant Services, LLC for an undisclosed sum. Raleigh, N.C.-based-Atlantic Merchant serves merchants and businesses across the mid-Atlantic region, as well as West Virginia, Tennessee, Michigan, and Texas. Atlantic Merchant’s services include touchscreen POS, mobile solutions, e-commerce, countertop terminals, and smart-phone applications. Merchant segments serviced …

Mid-size payments processors have contended with a pandemic, a sharply rising cost of funds, and pronounced inflation over the past few years, but that hasn’t stopped them from capturing volume, particularly from the small and medium-size merchants that have long been their specialty. In results reported early Thursday, Alpharetta, Ga.-based …

ABI Research forecasted the number of physical, instantly issued payment cards globally will grow to 471.1 million shipments in 2027 from 243.2 million in 2022. Citicorp’s Citi Retail Services unit introduced its Citi Pay line of services, with the first product consisting of Citi Pay Credit, a digital credit card. An installment-loan product will …

The major restaurant point-of-sale technology provider Toast Inc. early Wednesday reported revenues of $819 million for the first quarter of 2023, a 53% increase over the same period a year earlier. Recurring revenue for the quarter totaled $987 million, a 55% increase from a year earlier. In addition, Toast grew …

It’s a laurel, of sorts, that financial firms would like to rebuff. They sustained the largest share of phishing attacks in the fourth quarter, accounting for 27.7% of all attacks, followed by the broad “other” category at 18.2%, and webmail, software-as-a-service at 17.7%. That’s according to the Phishing Activity Trends …

Real-time payment fraud is on the rise, even before the expected July launch of the Federal Reserve’s FedNow service. Some 71% of financial institutions reported an increase in consumer account takeover fraud using real-time payment networks from 2021 to 2022, according to a February and March survey of financial-institution executives internationally …

EMTransfer LLC, a real-estate cash-management platform provider, has teamed up with KeyBank to bring real-time payments to the real-estate industry through The Clearing House Payments Co.’s RTP network. Using application programming interfaces from KeyBank, EMTransfer can connect parties involved in the real-estate closing process, such as title insurance and escrow …

PayPal has been known for some time as a major alternative for checkout online, but now the company is making it plain it’s putting considerable resources behind checkouts where its services function entirely in the background. So-called unbranded checkout, led by the company’s Braintree processing platform along with a relatively …

Payrange Inc., a payments provider for the vending and unattended-retail market, announced it has acquired Vagabond, a cloud-based provider of business intelligence for the convenience-retail industry. Terms were not announced. Sales of contactless cards helped payment card manufacturer CPI Card Group Inc. increase overall first-quarter sales 8% year-over-year to $120.9 million, with sales …

Cantaloupe Inc. is rolling out Cantaloupe Go, a line of self-service apps and kiosks that rely on artificial intelligence to enable consumers to purchase products in self-service retail locations, such as micro-markets. Cantaloupe Go comprises Cantaloupe’s line of self-checkout kiosks. which vary in cost, features, and payment-acceptance capabilities; Smart Store …

Merchants’ price for accepting credit cards has remained steady for years, according to data released Monday by the Electronic Payments Coalition, an advocacy group representing the payment card industry. The EPC’s release comes as widespread and longstanding merchant complaints about the cost of card acceptance have sparked efforts by federal …