The Federal Trade Commission announced settlements with the two principals of Apex Capital Group, an Internet marketer of dietary supplements and personal-care products the FTC accused of using deceptive free-trial offers and negative-option billing in the U.S. and United Kingdom. The defendants must surrender assets valued at $3 million or more and are barred …

The China-based payments network UnionPay International said it now links to more than 28 million merchants outside China, with 2 million having been added in the first half of 2019. The company also said 80% of U.S. merchants now accept UnionPay credit cards.Visa Inc. said its B2B Connect network now processes cross-border corporate …

A survey by processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) found that 54 countries now have active real-time payment programs, up from 40 in 2018 and nearly four times as many as 2014.Cross River Bank, which specializes in services for technology companies, has applied to link to The Clearing House Payments Co.’s Real Time …

Global Payments Inc. completed its $21.5 billion all-stock merger with payment processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS). The deal cleared its last major hurdle when European Union antitrust regulators said they had no competition concerns, Reuters reported Tuesday. The merged company serves 3.5 million merchant locations and 1,300 financial institutions in more than 100 …

Turnkey Risk Solutions, a risk-management firm specializing in first-party fraud, rebranded as Humaitrix LLC. Payments veterans John J. Leehy III joined the company as chief executive and Gregory W. Sahrmann joined as the chief operating officer. Amy Walraven, a former JPMorgan Chase & Co. risk executive, is founder, president, and chief …

Financial-technology provider Plaid Inc. disclosed that it has received “strategic investments” from both Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc.Digital payments and competition from nonbanks in payments may cost banks as much as 15% of their global payments revenue, or $280 billion, says Accenture in its “2019 Global Payments Survey.”Visa said it is working with insurance …

Payments provider Adyen N.V. said fashion retailer BrandBank will use its payments network throughout markets in Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. BrandBank operates more than 500 stores.Digital River agreed to provide payments and tax and compliance services on the Salesforce AppExchange.PepsiCo has launched a cash-back rewards program called PepCoin, which lets consumers deposit cash rewards directly …

United Merchant Services Inc. said it acquired the rights to Royal Western Computer’s assets, including its point-of-sale software for dry cleaning merchants, branding, trademarks, licensee database, and sales channels. Royal Western Computer holds more than 25% of the dry cleaning POS market, UMS said. The company intends to expand by combining …

Mastercard Inc. said it will act as the clearing and settlement network for a cross-border payments service the company has agreed to develop with R3, a blockchain-software vendor.Some 74% of online transactions globally are for digital goods and services, with ride-share service and restaurant delivery ranking as the first and second most used …

Processor Stripe Inc. launched the Stripe Corporate Card, a Visa credit card that can be branded with the merchant’s logo. New merchants can get a card when they sign up for a Stripe account. In addition to 2% and 1% cash-back rewards, the card also offers $50,000 in free payment processing …