Competitive Strategies

Drury Hotels Co., which in May disclosed a data breach involving reservations made through some third-party online booking sites, now says the breach involved transactions from Dec. 28, 2017, to June 2 of this year, about two-and-a-half months longer than the originally stated timeline. Drury said “unauthorized access” occurred on …

The Shanghai-based UnionPay International payment network reported Monday that it now has 28 million accepting merchants outside of China and 120 million cards issued by non-mainland financial institutions since it launched its global business in 2004. But while UnionPay International now has a presence in 176 countries, with Chile and …

AeroPay, the mobile-payments service from Aero Payments LLC, debuted a 1% cash-back rewards program for its users. AeroPay, which uses a connection to the automated clearing house network for its transactions via Dwolla Inc., says consumers using its iOS or Android app can earn unlimited 1% cash-back rewards. The payout …

The Federal Reserve, which is taking industry comments on its upcoming FedNow real-time payments network until Nov. 7, said common questions so far involve pricing and the scope of the service. The first question can’t be answered yet, and the second touches on services that will be designed by financial institutions building on top …

With The Clearing House Payments Co. operating a real-time payments network and the Federal Reserve planning one for no later than 2024, payments companies are looking at slices of the market for opportunities in instant money movement. And these niche plays aren’t just the province of the country’s biggest banks. …

The New York attorney general is suing Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. for allegedly violating the state’s data-breach notification act by failing to notify nearly 20,000 customers that their Dunkin’ accounts had been compromised in a series of brute force cyberattacks beginning in 2015. Hackers also gained unauthorized access to more than 300,000 accounts in …

Tech behemoths Google, Amazon, and Apple, goliath retailers Walmart and Target, and PayPal, all support the Federal Reserve providing faster payments via its FedNow service, slated for introduction by 2024. Each of them, however, would howl in protest if Washington proposed competing with their business or helping would-be competitors. Fearing The Clearing …

The recently completed acquisition of Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) by Global Payments Inc. is “the best of the bunch” among the three megamergers in the payment-processing industry this year, investment research firm Morningstar Inc. says in a new report. The Global-TSYS deal “has the most capacity to reduce costs …

The Fed has amassed enormous—in practice, unaccountable—power, and taken roles natural to government and to the private sector. It’s the central bank, paramount financial-system regulator, and a payments operator. It shouldn’t, however, undertake activities better and naturally performed in the private sphere.  The latest example: On its own prerogative, the …

Fiserv Inc.’s acquisition of First Data Corp. this year was the first of a trio of big mergers that has made 2019 the year of the megadeals in payments. On Thursday, a key Fiserv executive close to the action explained how the $22-billion acquisition served as the capstone to a …