Total card spending per household was up 5.9% year-over-year in 2022, according to new data from the Bank of America Institute. Kubra, which provides a payment network enabling consumers to pay bills with cash at retailers, said retailer Rite Aid joined its network, the 19th to do so. Blaze, a point-of-sale …

A technology company called Markt POS announced what it says is the first cloud-based software to handle payments and other functions exclusively for small and medium-size grocery and specialty stores. The company says more than 300 stores have signed up for the product. Iowa-based payments provider VizyPay said it has processed more than $4 …

Clowd9, a cloud-based payment-processing platform, said it will use 3-D Secure issuer services from Netcetera to authenticate transactions and for access control services. Mastercard Inc. introduced its Mastercard Artist Accelerator program, which aims to assist fledgling music artists through nonfungible tokens and other Web3 technologies.

Payments platform Fleetcor Technologies Inc. has closed on its acquisition of Global Reach Group, a United Kingdom-based provider of cross-border payments. Terms of the deal, which was announced in June, were not released. Ionia, a provider of embedded-payments technology, has joined Visa Inc.’s Fast Track Program, a service enabling fintechs to tap …

ACI Worldwide Inc.’s shares finished up 13% to $26.11 on Wednesday as Bloomberg reported the payments company is talking to private-equity players about a possible sale. Payments processor Computer Services Inc. said it is working with Microsoft to rebuild its technology on Azure, Microsoft’s cloud-services platform. CardWorks Servicing LLC, a unit of CardWorks …

Ackroo Inc., a point-of-sale marketing and payments platform, said it has closed on its acquisition of Simpliconnect, a cloud-based marketing service for service stations and convenience stores. Under the terms of the deal, Ackroo paid $750,000 at the close and will make six monthly cash payments of $125,000 starting July …

The number of cryptocurrency hacks globally reached 190 last year, setting a new annual record and exceeding 2021’s total by 44%, according to Comparitech. The value stolen totaled $3.57 billion, exceeding the combined total for 2019, 2020, and 2021. Some 82% of senders of remittances across borders said the cost of living has risen …

China-based UnionPay International announced 38 million merchants globally now accept the UnionPay card, four times the number 10 years ago, with 4 million added in 2022. UnionPay has issued more than 20 million cards internationally this year, bringing to more than 200 million the number of cards outside the Chinese Mainland. Former …

Dealer-Pay, a payments-technology provider for automobile dealerships, has integrated its platform with Dealertrack, a management system serving the same industry. Guarda, whose cryptocurrency wallet includes a prepaid Visa card, added five more digital currencies to the 14 it already supports. Supported cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin and Ethereum. Japan-based Smartpay has launched Smartpay …

MoneyGram International Inc. announced a partnership with bill-payment platform CellPay to expand bill-pay options for MoneyGram users while expanding acceptance for MoneyGram’s service to more than 30,000 billers. Some 3.46% of U.S. consumers opened a new credit card in November, down from 3.7% in November 2021, according to the December 2022 …