Acquiring

Visa Inc. is among backers of an $80-million investment in Currency Cloud Ltd., whose software runs cross-border payments for financial apps, primarily in Europe. The funding round, co-led by Visa and SAP’s venture-funding unit Sapphire, included backing from Google. The funding follows Visa’s $5.3-billion deal to acquire Plaid, whose software enables fintechs …

Two bellwether payments stocks headed in opposite directions Friday morning as they reported financial results for the fourth quarter. Discover Financial Services saw its share price swoon 7.41% in pre-market trading. By mid-morning, it stood at $77.94, down 9% from its Thursday close. AmEx shares on the other hand had …

New York City became the third U.S. city to ban cashless-only payments in restaurants and stores with the passage Thursday of a measure to prohibit merchants from refusing to accept cash. San Francisco and Philadelphia have similar bans, as does the state of New Jersey.  Originally proposed by New York …

WEX Inc., a processor in the fleet-fueling and corporate transaction market, said it has agreed to acquire eNett, a business-to-business payments software company specializing in the travel market, and Optal, a specialist provider of B2B transactions, for approximately $1.275 billion in cash and approximately 2 million shares of WEX common …

In another move solidifying its emboldened links with Chinese payments providers, PayPal Holdings Inc. announced Wednesday it will support UnionPay International in its digital wallet. Eventually, UnionPay International, whose financial-institution members have issued more than 7.5 billion cards globally, according to China Daily, will look for ways to support PayPal’s …

BMO Harris Bank has made Zelle person-to-person payments available to its commercial clients, which can use Zelle to pay individuals without requiring banking information needed for ACH transactions. BMO Harris Bank says it is one of only eight banks to offer Zelle as a business-to-consumer service.Commerce Bank said insurer Progressive will use CommercePayments PreferPay for …

Payment firms that are used to choosing which PIN standard to audit against now have a much simpler choice. The Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. and the PCI Security Standards Council have created a unified PIN Security Standard, replacing separate ones each organization previously maintained. The consolidation, announced Tuesday, should …

British telecommunications giant Vodafone Group Plc has become the latest Libra participant to withdraw from the controversial digital-currency project initiated by Facebook Inc., Reuters reported. Other early participants that have withdrawn include Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe, and eBay.With an eye on expanding its Bitcoin services, merchant processor Square Inc. said it is developing what it calls …

Two payments companies specializing in serving software application providers announced integrations. First, Pars Consulting Inc. completed the integration of LawPay, a payment service for law practices, for Curo365, a legal-practice software. Redmond, Wash.-based Pars said the LawPay integration with Curo365 will increase clients for both. “There were lots of payment …

Affirm Inc., provider of point-of-sale installment credit, announced StubHub will use its service to sell event tickets that buyers can pay for over time.Chinese tourists in the United States increased their mobile-payments usage in 2019 to 3.1 transactions out of 10 from 2.8 the year before, according to a report released by …