Mastercard Inc. is taking on the problematic use of passwords with its new Biometric Authentication Service. Announced Wednesday, the new global service is meant to help resolve friction and vulnerability issues that arise from ceaseless passwords and multi-factor authentication prompts, Mastercard says. The service relies on standards from the Fast …

Klarna AB, a buy now, pay later provider, is entering the subscription arena with the U.S. launch of Klarna Plus. For $7.99 a month, Klarna Plus enables eligible consumers to earn double rewards points on their purchases, pay no service fee when using Klarna at merchants outside of the Klarna …

Sound Payments issued a slate of updates for its point-of-sale system, including a way for retailers to categorize returns. Jacksonville, Fla.-based Sound Payments says the new return-categories feature enables merchants to catalog returns by size, reason for return, defective, and other custom variables. It also has a reporting component for …

Apple Inc. will let developers enable purchases outside of its App Store, marking a change that previously prohibited such action. The move comes in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court this week declining to hear appeals from either Apple or Epic Games in their court saga. Epic sued Apple …

Giant payment processor Fiserv Inc. wants to take on another aspect of the business with its application for a special bank charter in Georgia. The charter for a merchant-acquirer limited purpose bank, if approved, would enable Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv to interact with card networks directly instead of operating through a …

Web services and payments provider GoDaddy Inc. released its Tap to Pay on Android point-of-sale service for merchants, complementing the Tap to Pay on iPhone technology it already offers. Tap to Pay on Android enables merchants to use consumer-grade smart phones as contactless payment-acceptance devices without a need for separate …

The hotly competitive point-of-sale technology arena just got more so with the launch of Elo Pay and an accompanying POS terminal from Elo Touch Solutions Inc. Coming from Milpitas, Calif.-based Elo, Elo Pay provides payment acceptance, encryption, tokenization, and terminal-management tools in one service. Elo Pay also offers remote key …

Hospitality point-of-sale system provider GoTab Inc.’s latest product, billed as Phone Only POS, accepts payments on consumer-grade smart phones. It also makes it easier for consumers to pay at the table, GoTab says. The service enables clients to accept contactless credit or debit cards for payment without the need of …

Payments provider Talus Pay announced two acquisitions on Thursday, indicating it acquired Clarus Merchant Services and Jobox.ai in separate deals. Total annual payments volume for the newly combined company total $9 billion for more than 22,000 U.S. merchants. Dallas-based Talus Pay says Clarus Merchant Services, based in Gaithersburg, Md., provides …

RDE Inc., owner of Restaurant.com, a popular dining-deals site, has closed on its acquisition of CardCash Exchange LLC, operator of CardCash.com, a secondary gift card marketplace. The deal advances RDE’s presence in gift cards for consumers and merchants. The combined business accounted for more than $100 million in revenue in …