Competitive Strategies

Open-banking technology provider Plaid Inc. is pairing-up with The Western Union Co. to bring its account-verification services to the wire-transfer giant’s European customers. Under the so-called collaboration San Francisco-based Plaid announced Thursday, Western Union will be able to tap Plaid’s open-banking system for account verification, thereby simplifying remittances and digital …

Eved LLC, a provider of payment management solutions for the entertainment and media industry, late Thursday launched a prepaid business-to-business card for production companies. The Visa-branded card, called EvedPay, will enable entertainment, media and production companies to load predetermined dollar amounts onto the business-to-business prepaid cards to manage spending limits …

Up ‘n go, a QR code-based pay-at-the-table provider, said it recently marked more than $1.1 billion in total payments processed. The company was founded in 2017. Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc. will settle a class action lawsuit over ATM fees, according to a Reuters report. They have agreed to pay $197 …

Almost two-thirds of U.S. consumers prefer to pay bills manually rather than through automated services, according to a survey by payments platform MX Technologies Inc. The online research embraced 1,059 adults and was conducted during the first quarter. Embedded payments startup Forward closed a $16 million seed financing round led by Commerce Ventures, Elefund, …

Airlines face myriad challenges when it comes to improving their payment processes to drive bookings and support growth, according to a report from omnichannel payments and digital-commerce platform provider CellPoint Digital. The two leading payments challenges facing airlines are a lack of alternative payment methods and regional forms of payment, …

PayIt LLC announced on Tuesday it is processing payments for fishing licenses for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. The deal, which was consummated March 20 but not announced immediately, is the latest for PayIt, an 11-year-old Kansas City, Mo.-based platform that specializes in digital payments for …

Technology platform Humbl said it will develop a digital ticketing offering for the Oregon Blackbears, an indoor football team. Organic Payment Gateways said it has launched an Authorize.net gateway service for merchants selling cannabis seed, nutritional supplements, and cannabidiol, the active ingredient in cannabis. Authorize.net is owned by Visa Inc. ParTech Inc., which …

More credit unions will have access to real-time payments networks in separate deals announced Tuesday. BankSocial, a division of Fivancial Inc., launched its real-time payment service for credit unions. Meanwhile, Pidgin Inc. is working with core processing provider Corelation Inc. to enable broader real-time payments access to its clients. Dallas-based …

Fintech CredBuild said it is working with BloomCredit to enable renters to report rent payments to credit bureaus via property management systems. BloomCredit provides the API codes. PayIt, a specialist in government payments, said the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will use PayIt for a new digital fish-licensing system. Waystar Holding Corp., …

Claims by banks that merchants won’t pass along savings from the Credit Card Competition Act to consumers are grossly misleading and do not reflect the economic realities merchants face, argues the Merchants Payments Coalition, a lobbying group representing sellers on payments-acceptance matters. Passing along cost savings or at least holding …