Competitive Strategies

Visa Inc. is among backers of an $80-million investment in Currency Cloud Ltd., whose software runs cross-border payments for financial apps, primarily in Europe. The funding round, co-led by Visa and SAP’s venture-funding unit Sapphire, included backing from Google. The funding follows Visa’s $5.3-billion deal to acquire Plaid, whose software enables fintechs …

Mobile remote deposit capture has made big gains in recent years, but there’s still room to improve the service, according to new survey findings. Deficiencies in financial institutions’ mobile-capture offerings include error identification and tracking, unclear notices of funds availability, and overly restrictive risk-control policies, according to Ron Shevlin, director …

Two bellwether payments stocks headed in opposite directions Friday morning as they reported financial results for the fourth quarter. Discover Financial Services saw its share price swoon 7.41% in pre-market trading. By mid-morning, it stood at $77.94, down 9% from its Thursday close. AmEx shares on the other hand had …

New York City became the third U.S. city to ban cashless-only payments in restaurants and stores with the passage Thursday of a measure to prohibit merchants from refusing to accept cash. San Francisco and Philadelphia have similar bans, as does the state of New Jersey.  Originally proposed by New York …

WEX Inc., a processor in the fleet-fueling and corporate transaction market, said it has agreed to acquire eNett, a business-to-business payments software company specializing in the travel market, and Optal, a specialist provider of B2B transactions, for approximately $1.275 billion in cash and approximately 2 million shares of WEX common …

In another move solidifying its emboldened links with Chinese payments providers, PayPal Holdings Inc. announced Wednesday it will support UnionPay International in its digital wallet. Eventually, UnionPay International, whose financial-institution members have issued more than 7.5 billion cards globally, according to China Daily, will look for ways to support PayPal’s …

The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC, operator of the Real Time Payments network, said Thursday that it will raise the RTP transaction limit from the current $25,000 to $100,000 effective Feb. 1. Steve Ledford, TCH senior vice president of product strategy and development, tells Digital Transactions News the limit is …

BMO Harris Bank has made Zelle person-to-person payments available to its commercial clients, which can use Zelle to pay individuals without requiring banking information needed for ACH transactions. BMO Harris Bank says it is one of only eight banks to offer Zelle as a business-to-consumer service.Commerce Bank said insurer Progressive will use CommercePayments PreferPay for …

Faster payments on the nation’s automated clearing house network reached a milestone in the fourth quarter, with each business day recording at least 1 million same-day transactions for the first time since same-day service was introduced, according to data released Wednesday by Nacha, the governing body for the ACH. “We’re …

British telecommunications giant Vodafone Group Plc has become the latest Libra participant to withdraw from the controversial digital-currency project initiated by Facebook Inc., Reuters reported. Other early participants that have withdrawn include Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe, and eBay.With an eye on expanding its Bitcoin services, merchant processor Square Inc. said it is developing what it calls …