Acquiring

A potential merger, joint venture, or partnership may be in the offing for Global Payments Inc. and Total System Services Inc. (TSYS). The two merchant-processing powerhouses have held preliminary discussions about a combination of some sort, according to a report late Thursday by Bloomberg.com. In addition to traditional merchant processing, …

The Electronic Transactions Association sent letters to Congress and the Canadian Parliament urging lawmakers to ratify the pending U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) that would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. Among other things, the USMCA reflects “the importance of data, technology, and innovation,” and would bar any country from …

A five-year-old lawsuit brought by payday lenders against federal banking regulators over the government’s controversial Operation Choke Point ended with a settlement this week. Advance America, Cash Advance Centers Inc. (Advance America), and Check Into Cash had sued the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of …

TriMet, the transit agency for the Portland, Ore., region, said transit riders can now use its Hop Fastpass card in Apple Wallet and use their iPhones and Apple Watches to pay for fares on TriMet, C-TRAN, and Portland Streetcar lines. TriMet said Hop is the first transit fare to launch …

Gilbarco Veeder-Root said Citgo Petroleum Corp. released its EMV-acceptance Passport software for Citgo retailers to use in the forecourt. With this release, Gilbarco Veeder-Root said more than 70% of its Passport customers have forecourt EMV software available as upgrades. At a payments conference sponsored by The American Bankers Association, the …

With momentum building to ban cashless stores, a rough consensus seems to be emerging that the United States will never have the cashless society futurists have predicted for decades as first cards, then e-commerce, and now mobile payments took root. To be sure, research released Tuesday by Square Inc. shows …

Contactless payments account for only an estimated low-single-digit share of U.S. general-purchase credit and debit card transactions, but contactless has a much greater share of payments in Canada and the United Kingdom, recently released data show. Canada’s largest merchant acquirer, Toronto-based Moneris Solutions Corp., says that in the first quarter …

Nxgen International Inc. acquired payments provider Payment Plus Inc. for an undisclosed amount. PPI will continue to grow its business in Kentucky and the Midwest, Nxgen said. Card-issuing platform Marqeta said it raised $260 million in Series E funding, placing the company’s value at almost $2 billion. Marqeta said the …

First-quarter growth in leading merchant processor First Data Corp.’s portfolios lagged growth posted in the preceding two quarters, but in a rare event physical merchants posted higher sales increases than their online counterparts. In its latest SpendTrend report, First Data says total payment card spending at U.S. merchants on its …

Sezzle, an online provider of installment loans to consumers, will use the Bank of America Merchant Services platform for digital card processing. Lavu, provider of mobile point-of-sale systems for restaurants and bars, certified three receipt printers from Epson America Inc. Lavu previously certified Epson’s Mobilink line of mobile receipt printers. …