Data breaches declined sharply during the first half of 2021, says a report from Risked Based Security Inc. The number of publicly reported data breaches during the first six months of 2021 totaled 1,767, down 24% from the same period in 2020. At the same time, the number of sensitive …

On the heels of Square Inc.’s acquisition of Afterpay Ltd., other buy now, pay later providers are jockeying to boost their position in the hotly competitive BNPL market.  Sezzle Inc. struck a deal Tuesday with e-commerce platform BigCommerce Holdings Inc. to become its preferred BNPL partner. BigCommerce will integrate Sezzle …

Square Inc.’s acquisition of Afterpay Ltd. is expected to give Square a ready-made product in the hotly competitive buy now, pay later market that it can quickly plug into its consumer and merchant applications to make it an immediate force in BNPL.  Square on Sunday announced it was acquiring Afterpay, …

Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit is betting its partnership with Marqeta Inc.to issue a tokenized virtual Google Pay card will entice consumers to use Google Pay more often for day-to-day purchases online and in-store.  The new card, announced this week, allows users to make purchases with their Google Pay balance using a …

As open banking continues to gain momentum, providers of the technology continue to grow their ecosystem of partners to make it easier for financial institutions to validate accounts and the availability of funds within an account. Nymbus, a provider of banking-technology solutions, has partnered with Plaid Inc. to authenticate and fund …

Shift4 Payments Inc. continued its expansion into sports and entertainment venues Tuesday, announcing that it will provide payment processing for Chicago’s United Center, home to the National Basketball Association’s Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League. The payments offering relies on Shift4’s VenueNext technology.  Shift4 said …

Nearly 18 months into the Covid-19 pandemic, consumer usage of contactless payments continues to grow, according to the most recent CardFlight Small Business Report. During the week ending July 18, contactless transactions increased 597.7% from the March 2020 baseline period. Contactless usage has been steadily increasing on a weekly basis …

The hotly competitive peer-to-peer payments market got even more crowded Tuesday with the entry of Payveris LLC, a digital money-movement platform provider. The new service, which Cromwell, Conn.-based Payveris expects will compete with the P2P stalwarts Zelle, Venmo, and Cash App, will enable real-time P2P payments over the debit card …

Responding to consumer demand for an easier way to shop and earn rewards online, Raise Marketplace LLC announced Thursday the launch of an in-app shopping feature for its Slide mobile app. Consumers can now connect directly through the Slide app to the company’s more than 200 merchant partners to shop, …

Sensing that consumers’ growing preference for contactless-payments options will be permanent, Intuit Inc. on Thursday introduced its QuickBooks Card Reader for small businesses. The terminal, which integrates with QuickBooks Payments, supports what Intuit calls smart-tipping functionality. Businesses can customize three tipping options that are displayed on the card reader as …