The nation’s automated clearing house network is on a tear. Transaction volume grew by 6.3% for the fourth quarter of 2017 and by 5.7% for the full year, according to numbers released late Tuesday by NACHA, the governing body for the ACH system. All told, the network handled $46.8 trillion …

When the price of Bitcoin spiraled to dizzying heights last year, so did its costs for those who wanted to exchange the digital currency rather than hoard it. Places that accepted Bitcoin, some of them for years, announced they would stop taking it. Since December, Bitcoin’s price has famously slid …

The mere hint that Amazon.com Inc. could add a person-to-person payments function to its Alexa voice-commerce service was enough early Friday to shave value off of the shares of PayPal Holdings Inc. and Square Inc., both of which offer P2P networks. At mid-morning, Square’s shares were down more than 3% …

In the increasingly competitive market for tabletop point-of-sale terminals, providers are looking for some magic. One of them, Redwood City, Calif.-based E la Carte, said this week it is changing its name to Presto, which means “fast” in Italian, as the company points out, but also adds that the word …

Bank processors over the past several years have worked to combine cardless technology with a continuing consumer demand for cash, a trend that took on momentum on Wednesday with an announcement from Fiserv Inc. that three ATM manufacturers are now supporting the company’s 3-year-old CardFree Cash service. ATM makers Genmega, …

Lately, the cryptocurrency craze has raised any number of questions, but probably the most pressing one for the payments business is whether any of these hundreds of tokens can ever succeed as an actual payment device. But while fluctuating trading values plague all of the digital currencies, one stands out …

NXT-ID Inc., a provider of authentication and contactless-payment technology, reported on Monday that its revenue tripled last year compared to 2016 while its adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes, and amortization swung positive. The Melbourne, Fla.-based company is best-known in the payments market for its Fit Pay Inc. unit, which …

As financial institutions move beyond mag-stripe payment cards, they face a crucial question: should we support mobile wallets, and if we do, should we also issue contactless cards? In the eyes of at least one observer, the answer is an unequivocal “yes” and “yes,” even though the former would seem …

The U.S. petroleum industry has until October 2020 to comply with the card networks’ deadline to accept EMV chip cards. Will it make it? According to one expert observer, the odds aren’t good. “Some will not be ready,” Terry Mahoney, a partner who follows the industry at Chicago-based W. Capra …

With the EMV conversion mostly behind it, the United States is ripe for another big change at the point of sale—adoption of tap-and-go payments, says Visa Inc. With 96% of its payment volume now chip-based, “the next thing we’re focusing on is contactless,” Stephanie Ericksen, the card network’s vice president …