The holidays are approaching, and with that annual shopping frenzy comes a yearly boost in gift card sales. As it turns out, though, most gift cards are likely to be plastic or paper rather than digital, according to consumer and small-business research released Thursday. While preference for digital cards is growing, …

The London-based financial-services technology provider Finastra said Wednesday that it has agreed to offer blockchain technology from Ripple Labs Inc. for cross-border payments processed by its client institutions. In related news, more than 1,500 firms have inquired with the Libra Association about joining the group, the association said, in the …

More details emerged Tuesday about Samsung Pay Cash, the virtual prepaid card Samsung Electronics America Inc. first announced late last week as the latest feature for its mobile wallet.  Global Payments Inc., the big Atlanta-based processor that recently acquired Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), said Monday it has now integrated …

Friday’s news that PayPal Holdings Inc. is bailing out of Facebook Inc.’s Libra cryptocurrency project underscores the importance of an upcoming meeting of the project’s backers in Geneva, Switzerland, observers say. It has also heightened speculation about whether the project is likely to lose more of the remaining 26 companies …

In a bad week for cryptocurrency, a news report emerged late Thursday that PayPal Holdings Inc. skipped a key meeting of backers of Facebook Inc.’s Libra initiative. And, in the state of Ohio, officials on Wednesday suspended a pioneering site that accepted business taxes via Bitcoin. Twenty-seven of the 28 …

Adoption of mobile-payment apps in the United States has been tepid, so the so-called “Pays”—Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay—have sought new features to spike consumer interest. The latest gambit comes from Samsung Pay, which on Thursday announced an integration that will allow U.S. users to send payments to …

A report Wednesday that at least some members of the consortium backing Facebook Inc.’s Libra cryptocurrency project—including Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.—are having second thoughts has drawn fire from the top Facebook executive in charge of the project. “The tone of some of this reporting suggests angst, etc….I can tell …

With The Clearing House Payments Co. operating a real-time payments network and the Federal Reserve planning one for no later than 2024, payments companies are looking at slices of the market for opportunities in instant money movement. And these niche plays aren’t just the province of the country’s biggest banks. …

Fiserv Inc.’s acquisition of First Data Corp. this year was the first of a trio of big mergers that has made 2019 the year of the megadeals in payments. On Thursday, a key Fiserv executive close to the action explained how the $22-billion acquisition served as the capstone to a …

A new analysis says insurance companies are particularly vulnerable to e-commerce fraud, and a recent report says a second round of data breaches has occurred at cities that use the Click2Gov application for payment of utility bills, parking tickets, and related municipal payments. It’s practically an iron law that as …