Thales’s proposed all-cash acquisition of rival Gemalto received merger-control regulatory clearance by the European Commission. Effective immediately, the clearance is conditioned on Thales’s agreement to divest its general-purpose hardware security modules business worldwide. The deal still must clear regulatory hurdles in five other countries, including the United States. Bluefin Payment …

Cloud-based point-of-sale system maker ShopKeep said it closed a $65 million funding round, led by Tribeca Venture Partners, that it will use for expansion and growth purposes. New investors include First Data Corp. and Salesforce Ventures. A staff report released by Republicans on the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform …

UATP, an airline-owned payment network, said it is adding Chase Pay to its network, a move that should make it easier for airlines to accept JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Chase Pay in their apps and Web sites. NCR Corp. completed its $184 million acquisition of merchant processor JetPay Corp. Payments …

OnDeck Capital Inc. said it will combine its Canadian lending operations with Evolocity Financial Group, a Montreal-based online small-business lender. The combined entity will be branded OnDeck Canada. Terms were not disclosed. Mobile-payments specialist Glance Technologies Inc. announced a referral agreement for cash advances with Merchant Advance Capital L.P. Hackers …

Citing its potential effects on payments-market competition, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority has now ordered an in-depth review of PayPal Holdings Inc.’s acquisition of Sweden-based processor iZettle AB. A PayPal spokesperson told Reuters the company is working with the CMA and plans to demonstrate the market will remain …

Digital Check Corp. said its ScanBox by Digital Check tablet-based scanning platform is now available in North and South America following its release in other markets. In a Cardtronics plc survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, 73% use cash regularly and 92% want a choice in how they pay. Commercial bank Signature …

FreedomPay announced Nando’s, an international fast-casual restaurant chain, will use FreedomPay’s point-to-point encryption payments platform in its Oracle Micros Simphony POS system installations. Payments provider SpotOn Transact LLC agreed to offer acceptance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to merchants via a partnership with Vaultbank, a blockchain-technology firm. Kevin Jones, founder …

Independent sales organization Gearfire Payments announced new plans to focus on reducing payment costs for the shooting-sports industry. Atom Tickets, a mobile-ticketing service for the movie industry, said it integrated SMG Access, a loyalty program from Studio Movie Grill, an operator of movie theaters featuring in-theater dining. Target Corp. may …

A consumer bill-pay survey revealed that 46% of consumers routinely pay after the due date or never pay at all. Of these, 72% are “very” or “extremely likely” to pay on time if they could pay with a credit or debit card, while 69% would pay on time if they …

First Data Corp. released its Holiday Insights dashboard, which shows real-time U.S. holiday spending trends, such as total spend percentage increase, today’s most active categories with average ticket and total transactions, and regional payment volume. To date, it indicates retail spending from Thanksgiving through Black Friday increased 6.4% year-over-year. Cardfree Inc., …