Acquiring

Observers of the payments industry who wonder how the Federal Reserve’s proposed rate reductions for debit card acceptance might be received by the nation’s biggest processors heard an unequivocal answer early Tuesday from at least one of them.  “Any time the cost of acceptance goes down, it’s a positive for …

The Western Union Co. announced customers will be able to send money via the company’s digital service directly to Visa and Mastercard cards through an integration with Paysend, a card-to-card payments platform. Lightspeed Commerce Inc. launched several new features including artificial intelligence-assisted menu creation, better insights into popular items, staff performance tools, …

Two point-of-sale companies have separately taken steps to boost their competitiveness, one with an acquisition and the other in a marketing expansion. Payments platform Nayax Ltd. says it will acquire Folsom, Calif.-based Retail Pro International in a $36.5-million deal. Expected to close in the fourth quarter, the deal will expand …

Payments processor Elavon announced its global acquiring multi-currency conversion services will support transactions for the airline Virgin Atlantic. Elavon, a unit of U.S. Bancorp, says it serves more than 100 airlines among its client base. Canadian banking giant BMO said it will begin offering Visa Inc.’s Installments payments service next year. Visa launched Installments …

Like a thunderclap, on Oct. 25 the stock price of continental Europe’s biggest payment processor, Worldline, plummeted 59%. It’s down a whopping 88% from its high in April 2021. Macroeconomic conditions are to blame, but so are Worldline-specific factors. The reign of easy money is over. Easy money inflates valuations. …

European transaction processors are getting hammered by slowing economies and increased regulatory scrutiny. Shares in the big French processor Worldline slid 59% on Wednesday, followed by a feeble recovery Thursday. AppTech Payments Corp. announced it has closed on its acquisition of Alliance Partners LLC. The deal brings to AppTech FinZeo, Alliance’s money-movement software …

Mastercard Inc. posted strong third-quarter results of $6.5 billion in revenue, up 12% from $5.8 billion in the 2022 third quarter. The card giant’s net income of $3.2 billion increased 28% from $2.5 billion in the year-ago quarter. Mastercard cited cross-border payment volume growth of 21% in the quarter as one …

With potential regulation of credit card interchange looming and with the unwavering demand from merchants for lower card-acceptance costs, the possibility that interchange as it’s known today may dramatically change can’t be entirely dismissed—but don’t count on its demise. That was the conclusion at the Money 20/20 trade show this …

The Federal Reserve Board is set to revisit its longstanding limit on debit card interchange on Wednesday, and most observers expect the Fed to lower it. But ask Visa Inc. about the matter—as analysts did Tuesday afternoon during the network’s September-quarter earnings call—and its top executives outwardly at least profess …

Bitpay, a provider of cryptocurrency-based payments services, said it is working with crypto-technology provider Banxa to enlarge access to payments using digital currency. Shield Compliance, a compliance provider for cannabis banking, issued an open letter to American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa calling on the networks to permit financial institutions …