The federal court handling the long-running class-action litigation between merchants on one hand and big banks and Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. on the other announced on Friday it has granted “preliminary approval” to a settlement that could award between $5.54 billion and $6.24 billion to merchant plaintiffs. The parties …

The use of chatbots in financial services is about to explode, if research released this week is any indication. Adoption will be such that the technology will save banks worldwide $7.3 billion in annual operating costs by 2023, compared to a projected $209 million this year, estimates Juniper Research in …

A Visa-branded debit card from Shift Financial Inc. that enabled consumers with accounts at digital currency exchange Coinbase to spend based on funds held in their Coinbase accounts reportedly will cease operations in April, said the CoinTelegraph.com news site. The card, issued by Metropolitan Commercial Bank, reportedly faced a limited …

For years, banking and payments veterans have dismissed cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin but at the same time have shown interest in the digital currencies’ underlying technology, the blockchain. Now one of the world’s biggest banking titans is testing its own blockchain-based token, but its restriction of the system to its own …

Global Payments Inc. on Wednesday credited a technology-centered strategy it has developed over the past six years for record results in 2018. Chief executive Jeff Sloan also pointed to the increasing investments required of payments providers as a leading cause of industry consolidation, in particular the pending merger of industry …

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. expects further processor mergers in the near term and isn’t averse to initiating them in cases where they fit the company’s strategy, its chairman and chief executive said Tuesday morning. “We will always look for opportunities,” said Gary Norcross, who is also president of the …

The tug-of-war over Earthport PLC continues. Visa Inc. upped its offer for the British business-to-business payment processor in a bidding war that started after Mastercard Inc. topped Visa’s original price. Visa is now offering 37 pence per share, which values the company at £247 million ($320.4 million). Visa’s new offer …

Twenty-two days of talking to clients haven’t dampened Fiserv Inc.’s conviction that offering to buy First Data Corp. is the right move. In fact, if anything these conversations seem to have buoyed top executives’ confidence in the proposed $22 billion all-stock acquisition of the big processor. “We’ve spent a substantial …

With the proposed merger of processing giants First Data Corp. and Fiserv Inc. looming over the payments landscape, players that both work and compete with the two companies are in a potentially ticklish position. But the chief executive of one such company made it clear Wednesday morning that First Data …

When the technology emerged, mobile ordering was thought to be a natural for the restaurant industry, and now there’s some research showing just how popular these apps have become. It turns out that, from 2013 through 2017, digital orders at restaurants grew at an average annual rate of 23%, and …