Acquiring

Southwest Airlines will join the roster of merchants that accept Apple Pay, according to an announcement Wednesday from CellPoint Digital and UATP. UATP, the airline-owned payment network, and CellPoint Digital, a travel industry payments specialist, said Dallas-based Southwest will make Apple Pay available across all channels to buy tickets and …

Payments provider NovoPayment said it is introducing instant-payment service Visa Direct for a range of payments, including person-to-person transfers and mass payouts. The move allows issuers, acquirers, and merchants to bring the services to market faster via application programming interfaces, the company said.EVO Payments Inc. said Aldelo, a point-of-sale software developer, selected …

Small merchants are often seen as threatened by e-commerce giants like Amazon.com Inc. that can deliver products to consumers in some cases hours after the order is placed. But it turns out local businesses across the country still do big business on the eve of major occasions like Christmas and …

Travel-payments and services specialist CellPoint Mobile changed its name to CellPoint Digital and created two omnichannel units. Velocity is the payment platform and Voyage manages promotions, sales, payments, and customer self-service across all digital channels.ICBA Bancard, a unit of the Independent Community Bankers of America, launched the ICBA Bancard Digital Payments Strategy …

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Task Force on Financial Technology will hold a hearing Sept. 26 on “The Future of Real-Time Payments.” The task force was created in May by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee.Housecall Pro, a software platform for home-service technicians, launched My …

The card networks’ crackdown on negative-option billing and subscriptions with free trials is continuing, with stricter policies from Visa Inc. set to take effect April 18. The updated Visa rules will follow by a year tightened rules from Mastercard Inc. on negative-option billers. These are billers who, after getting a consumer …

Discover Global Network signed an agreement with Credit Mutuel Arkea to allow Arkea Group merchants in France and Europe to accept Discover, Diners Club International, and allied issuers’ transactions.Ingenico Group’s e-commerce division, Ingenico ePayments, said it will provide payments services to Yoozoo Games, a game development and distribution company.Barclaycard, a unit of …

Alphabet Inc.’s Google subsidiary is adding more services to its Google Wallet for Android mobile devices, and Google’s Chrome Web browser now supports a common e-commerce payment form for merchants that is expected to be integrated into the other major browsers too. United Airlines Inc. in May became the first …

(This story has been updated to include a statement from Square). Square Inc. is often seen as the exemplar of technology that lets small merchants process card transactions via a simple reader linked to a mobile device. But now a rival point-of-sale technology provider has sued Square alleging that the …

Arxan Technologies, an application-security provider, said research it commissioned from Aite Group found 80 e-commerce sites that were actively compromised by groups using Magecart card-skimming technology. Magecart can infect e-commerce sites, without detection for long periods, and steal personal and financial information.Fitbit Inc. launched a new smart watch, Fitbit Versa 2, …