Consumers have flocked to buy now, pay later services, but providers still have to find ways to stand out. Afterpay Ltd. hopes to do that by enabling consumers who have a Rakuten account to earn cash back in the Rakuten program. Announced Monday, the Afterpay program enables Afterpay users who also …

Merchant services company Stax has acquired CardX LLC, a Chicago-based surcharging provider, in an effort to better meet demand for surcharging, especially among enterprise clients. Terms were not disclosed. The deal is the third of 2021 for Orlando, Fla.-based Stax, whose parent company is Fattmerchant . Founded in 2013, CardX has …

As real-time payments cements itself as a payments fixture, bank processors are enthusiastically signing new clients to provide the speedy payment service. Financial-institution processor Jack Henry & Associates Inc., in particular, has been enrolling merchants at a rapid pace in The Clearing House Payment Co. LLC’s Real Time Payments network. …

As integrated-payments competition intensifies, payment gateways are responding by making it easier for developers to access and use vital technical information. Indeed, more gateways—65% of them—analyzed in The Strawhecker Group’s annual Payment Gateway Directory, sponsored by MCAG, have open developer-center pages. This compares with 48% that did so in 2020. …

The Western Union Co. is boosting its tie-ins with Mastercard Inc. by integrating the card brand’s direct-to-card and cross-border payments products. Announced Friday, the integration sees Mastercard Send added to broaden Western Union’s payout capabilities in the United States. U.S. recipients of any Western Union transfer will be able to …

Zip Co. Ltd. launched the Zip Card, a physical card to complement its virtual card in the highly competitive buy now, pay later arena. The new card, to be issued by WebBank, a Salt Lake City-based industrial bank that works with brands like Dell Financial Services, CAN Capital, Klarna, Fingerhut, …

Shop Bonsai Inc., which provides in-app checkout technology under the Bonsai moniker, said it and buy now, pay later specialist Afterpay are making it easier for consumers to shop on an online publisher’s site without leaving the site. Announced Wednesday, the arrangement enables Bonsai shoppers to potentially reduce the checkout …

Bakkt, a digital-asset marketplace, said its users can now load their Bakkt Visa debit cards into Google Pay and use the crypto-backed cards to make online and in-store payments where Google Pay is accepted. The consumer’s digital asset, such as Bitcoin, will be converted to fiat currency for these payments. …

Mega-retailer Target Corp. says consumers can now use buy now, pay later options from Sezzle Inc. and Affirm Inc. Though Target doesn’t say why it is offering two BNPL options, it distinguishes Affirm, which offers a point-of-sale loan that charges interest, as best for purchases of more than $100. Sezzle, …

As the popularity of buy now, pay later services accelerates, potential problems do, too. Evidence of that has emerged in new research that finds 14% of BNPL users missed a payment once, and 12% missed a payment more than once, according to a new report from Piplsay, a consumer-research firm. …