Competitive Strategies

Debit card issuers have a new tool to spot potential false transaction declines with a new service from processor Fiserv Inc., and the authentication needs of mobile payments are driving, in part, the growth in fingerprint sensors. Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv says its new Authorization Lift service will help reduce the number …

Working with an unnamed partner, commerce platform Shopify Inc. said it will launch Shop Pay Installments later this year. The option will let consumers at checkout split purchases into four equal installments at no interest.In related news, point-of-sale installment lender PayBright said Canadian fashion retailer Groupe Dynamite is offering PayBright’s service on the merchant’s …

Forty-five percent of U.S. consumers are ordering online more often than usual as a result of restrictions stemming from Covid-19, and 34% are making more purchases with contactless or mobile-payment options, according to an online survey of 807 U.S. adults by Auriemma Group, a financial-services consulting firm. The firm also surveyed consumers …

With its merchant business under pressure because of the coronavirus pandemic, Square Inc. is yet again spying new opportunities for its consumer-facing Cash App, whose core feature is person-to-person payments. This time, Square is rolling out regularly scheduled purchases of Bitcoin and stocks for Cash App users. Square chief executive …

In an effort to reach occasional and very small sellers struggling with restrictions imposed to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic, PayPal Holdings Inc. on Tuesday launched a Quick Response code capability for its mobile app. The feature allows a buyer to scan a QR code displayed by a seller …

E-commerce facilitator WooCommerce launched WooCommerce Payments to provide checkout and payments-management capability for merchants on its platform. Transaction fees start at 2.9% plus 30 cents for U.S.-issued cards.ACI Worldwide Inc. announced Wundr Group Ltd., a retail payments platform specializing in cross-border transactions, will use ACI’s UP eCommerce Payments technology, which links to card-transaction …

The middle of a pandemic is an intriguing time to tap the public markets, to say the least, but observers say there could be some upside ultimately for Shift4 Payments LLC, which on Friday filed its expected registration statement for an initial public offering. The Allentown, Pa.-based payments-technology provider, which …

Even though credit card spending is still depressed as a result of the Covid-19 economic downturn, payment card volume trends have now been improving for a month or more, according to new data from credit-union service organization PSCU. St. Petersburg, Fla.-based PSCU reported Monday that overall credit card spending by …

Twenty-seven percent of U.S. consumers are past due on an at least one bill and nearly 50% will need a year to catch up on bills because of the Covid-19 pandemic, finds a study from YouGov and ACI Worldwide Inc. Of the nearly 1,400 surveyed, 81% said their mortgages and 78% said …

In the wake of 2019’s major merger-and-acquisition activity in the payments industry, the impact of Covid-19 is affecting the timing of deals, capital availability, and the due diligence process. That’s the assessment from panelists in the “M&A Trends in a Pandemic World” session at Transact Connect, the Electronic Transactions Association’s …