Payment volume through biller-direct Web sites continues to grow at the expense of bank bill-pay sites, according to new findings from Boston-based Aite Group LLC. Some 73% of the online bill payments made by consumers in 2016 went through biller-direct sites, up from 62% in 2010, according to Aite. Meanwhile, …

The efforts of 18 U.S. senators to persuade the Senate Appropriations Committee to honor state laws for legal cannabis are not expected to sway Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. to drop their prohibitions on marijuana-related purchases over their networks. Earlier this week, a group spearheaded by Sens. Michael Bennett (D) …

Interac, Canada’s debit network, has made it easier to digitally send money direct to another bank account through its e-Transfer service by eliminating the need for recipients to answer a security question each time a transfer is made. Answering a security question validates the recipient to whom the money is …

Financial institutions are realizing that a smooth experience is as important to consumers when identifying themselves as the authentication strategy itself, regardless of the channel consumers use to access their accounts. This finding is part of a new study from NICE Actimize, a Hoboken, N.J.-based provider of risk-management and compliance …

The Western Union Co. this week positioned itself to fend off competition from peer-to-peer payment services by partnering with Mastercard Inc. to integrate Mastercard Send into its money-transfer service. The service, which is expected to be available in only the United States starting in early 2018, will allow consumers to …

Contactless payments got a big boost Wednesday when the New York City area’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a $539.5 million contract with San Diego-based Cubic Transportation Systems to install a near-field communication-based payment system across all MTA transit and commuter-rail systems that includes open-loop payments. The deal means MTA riders …

With transaction laundering and false-front Web sites a growing problem for acquirers and independent sales organizations, technology vendors are beginning to respond. The latest example is Reno, Nev.-based Conformance Technologies LLC, which this week introduced more powerful tools to combat this growing fraud threat. Conformance has broadened the data elements …

Consumers may not realize it, but their mobile phone is a gateway for criminals to take over their bank accounts. In a fast-growing scam known as SIM swapping, criminals transfer the phone number associated with a consumer’s mobile phone to the SIM card embedded in a mobile phone in their …

Online merchants looking to increase their sales volume may want to consider offering instant financing. A study by Researchscape International reveals that 75% of respondents would be more likely to purchase from an online retailer that offers instant financing than one that does not. Another 28% said they would be …

Criminals purchasing stolen credit card data know they have a short window of opportunity to cash in before the accounts are shut down. Manually sifting through the hundreds, even thousands, of accounts bought in bulk can take more time than criminals have, which is why they are increasingly relying on …