Competitive Strategies

One advantage in providing merchant-acquiring services to 3.6 million U.S. locations is that First Data Corp. has a unique read on how major disasters such as hurricanes affect consumer spending. Statistics from the Atlanta-based processor show that spending spiked in the Miami area just before Hurricane Irma made landfall in …

Payroll-software provider Paychex Inc. introduced same-day debits processing on the automated clearing house. The new functionality allows employers to initiate corrections or reversals the same day the payroll is processed. Under ACH rules, same-day debits started Friday. Frost Bank introduced “Send Money with Zelle” on its Frost app. Zelle is a bank-controlled person-to-person payments network launched earlier …

Bitcoin has taken a beating in recent days, but investors who bought earlier this year are still enjoying handsome returns. Now, some merchants of high-end goods are signing up to accept the virtual currency, hoping to cash in on that wealth effect. Bitcoin was trading at $3,498 early Thursday morning, …

Merchants that process with Vantiv Inc. will have a new option to receive their settlements within minutes in the FastAccess Funding program the processor and program partner Visa Inc. announced Thursday. Merchants typically receive their settlement funds via the automated clearing house, which may take one to three days. Instead …

Citing the recent huge data breach at credit-reporting agency Equifax Inc., the National Retail Federation and other trade groups in a letter to Congressional leaders said any new federal law governing data-breach notifications should apply to all industries that handle consumer data. The groups want a uniform federal standard to replace the …

The Apple Pay mobile-payments service got only a few brief mentions in a nearly two-hour presentation Tuesday afternoon in which Apple Inc. executives introduced the latest versions of their 10-year-old iPhone and other new products. But what they did say could change payment security because the new iPhone X will …

ICBA Bancard, the card-processing unit of the Independent Community Bankers of America trade group, said it will offer member banks a card-not-present authentication service through Visa Inc.’s CardinalCommerce subsidiary. Mobile-payment provider LevelUp has reached an agreement with Open Dining, a vendor of mobile order-ahead technology, to list restaurants using Open Dining’s platform …

In anticipation of an upcoming PCI Security Standards Council specification for enabling PIN-on-glass transactions with consumer mobile devices, MagicCube released MC-Screen Shield, a back-end technology to help secure the PIN. PIN-on-glass technology—in which the PIN is entered via a display instead of using a dedicated PIN pad—has been available for …

Americans and Australians are using ATMs less than they did two years ago, while British adults are the biggest and most frequent users of the machines that debuted 50 years ago in their country. But Americans are more willing than their English-speaking compatriots to pay ATM fees. Those are some …

PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Venmo peer-to-peer payment service has been a fabulously popular product among users, but from PayPal’s point of view it has one big problem: It’s free. Since users don’t pay for the service, PayPal has to seek Venmo revenue elsewhere. Now, with a test about to start for …