Acquiring

Eric Cohen’s Commentary, “Whey the Credit Card Competition Act Falls Short,” posted here Oct. 9, makes three key claims about how the Credit Card Competition Act would supposedly harm small businesses and consumers. All of them are wrong.First, he says the bill would allow merchants “to choose their own network” …

The Payments Innovation Alliance released what it calls a tabletop exercise designed to help small and mid-size businesses prepare defenses against a cyberattack. The PIA is part of Nacha, the network operator for the automated clearing house network. Transact Campus Inc., a payments platform specializing in college campuses, announced a technical …

Celero Commerce announced late Wednesday it has acquired Finical Holdings LLC for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition, which is the tenth Celero has made since its launch in late 2018, will increase the company’s annual card processing volume to $25 billion and enlarge its presence in the Southwestern U.S. market, …

Processor Worldline is adding a flexible payment element to its revenue-share model for its North America partners servicing e-commerce merchants. And, payments provider Payroc says it will be the launch partner for the Ingenico Axium point-of-sale terminal line. Worldline’s new product, called FlexCommissions, enables its software and independent sales organization …

An agreement between processor Fiserv Inc. and open-banking platform Plaid will allow consumers who use any of Fiserv’s 3,000 client banks to share financial information with third-party apps and services. Discover Financial Services’ Discover Global Network launched a cloud-based version of its stored payment tokens service. Tokens are digital replacements for actual card credentials. …

Presto Automation Inc. says its voice-ordering system for restaurants represents a $17-million annual revenue opportunity as the company finishes its first full year as a public company. San Carlos, Calif.-based Presto finished the fiscal year ended June 30 with revenue of $26.1 million, a 14.1% decrease from $30.4 million the …

Payments platform Klarna AB announced a series of new services, including Shopping lens, which enables shoppers to take a picture of an item in their surroundings to find out where to buy it on the best terms. The service uses artificial intelligence to render the item in a search term. Technology consultancy Thoughtworks said …

Paze, an online wallet still in development, will be available to merchants using GoDaddy Inc.’s Web services. Paze is available for testing to select U.S. businesses on the GoDaddy platform. In March, at the announcement of Paze, Early Warning Services LLC, its developer, said full availability would arrive this autumn, …

The processor Worldpay said it will work with Masabi, a provider of technology for transit-fare payments, to offer an EMV platform for what the pair call “transit agencies of all sizes.” Health-care payments specialist RevSpring unveiled new features of its Engage IQ platform that includes updated messaging, the ability to use graphics in email …

The Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) looks to be headed for a vote before the end of the year, spurred in part by Sen. Dick Durbin’s recent urging that it be brought to the Senate floor. While the Illinois Senator is of the mind it will help increase industrywide competition …