Seeking to reduce merchant-account fraud, also known as merchant bust-out fraud, and provide merchants with a way to authenticate consumers, payments-technology provider On The Fly POS is adding Ipsidy Inc.’s Identity as a Service (IDaaS) biometric identity-verification technology to its platform. Ipsidy’s app validates a merchant’s identity by comparing a …

With more merchants embracing omnichannel sales strategies that blend brick-and-mortar and e-commerce shopping, Blackhawk Network Inc. is enabling merchants to sell digital gift cards in-store.  With Blackhawk’s eGift card platform, merchants can engage customers at multiple marketing touchpoints throughout the store, such as gift card racks and gift card displays …

With global economies expected to re-open as more consumers receive Covid-19 vaccinations, in-store retail spending will hit $22.8 trillion worldwide in 2022. That’s after in-store sales fell 7% in 2020 as many consumers shifted purchases online. The projection comes from London-based Kaleido Intelligence Ltd.  While the Covid-19 pandemic impacted in-store …

Buy now, pay later continues to be a hot option as retailers look for ways to entice shoppers to buy more and increase online conversions and in-store traffic.  Afterpay Ltd. announced Wednesday that its fifth bi-annual Afterpay Day promotion will include brick-and-mortar retailers for the first time. The event is scheduled …

Canadian processor Lightspeed POS Inc. announced Friday it has entered into an agreement to acquire Vend Ltd., a New Zealand-based provider of cloud-based retail management software. The cash and stock deal is valued at $350 million. Lightspeed will pay $192.5 million in cash and issue subordinate voting shares in the …

As part of its drive to turn off-the-shelf mobile devices into secure point-of-sale terminals using software as opposed to a dongle, MagicCube Inc. announced Thursday that its i-Accept application has expanded to Brazil. Acquiring banks and financial-technology service providers in Brazil can now enable merchants and retailers to accept contactless …

By linking directly to UnionPay’s SecurePlus two-factor authentication application, digital-commerce platform provider Merchant e-Solutions Inc. expects to significantly reduce decline rates for UnionPay debit card transactions in the United States.  Decline rates are an especially nettlesome issue for UnionPay debit card holders, who account for about 60% of UnionPay’s 9 …

Building on its strategy to support cryptocurrency, PayPal Holdings Inc. announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire Curv Inc., a provider of cloud-based infrastructure for digital-asset security, for an undisclosed sum. Once the acquisition is completed later this year, Tel Aviv, Israel-based Curv will become part of a PayPal …

Cash purchases fell to historic lows in 2020 as consumers shifted their payment preferences to contactless technologies such as mobile wallets, according to the 2021 Global Payments Report by Worldpay from FIS Inc. Cash transactions represented just 20.5% of global point-of-sale volume in 2020, down from 30.2% 2019, according to …

Thanks to the proliferation of such financial-service technologies as mobile wallets and peer-to-peer and e-cash payments, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, financial-technology providers are closing the gap on unbanked and underbanked consumers’ access to financial services, according to a report from the Electronic Transactions Association. One example cited in the …