Competitive Strategies

Artificial-intelligence technology, on which a number of payments applications have begun to rely over the past year or so, just keeps getting hotter. Nearly 700 funding deals for AI startups were concluded in 2016, up 33% from 2015, according to a report released this week by CBInsights, a New York …

Payments provider National Merchants Association announced it is using the PhoeniXGate gateway from Phoenix Managed Networks. Fleetcor Technologies Inc., a vendor of commercial-payment technology, reported second-quarter results, including a year-over-year increase of 29.5% in total revenue to $541.2 million and GAAP net income of $131 million, up 12.7%. The Western Union Co. reported …

Merchant acquirer Square Inc. increased its presence among consumers in the second quarter with the June rollout of its physical Square Cash Card, a Visa debit card, and the launch of a test in which Square provides loans to customers of its merchants. Both developments occurred as Square’s gross payment …

Global Payments Inc. said Thursday that it has a deal to buy two major divisions of Active Network LLC, a growing event-management software provider and payment processor, for $1.2 billion from a private-equity firm. The merchant acquirer also reported its second-quarter financials, which include a nearly 8% year-over-year increase in …

Bitcoin Cash, the Bitcoin offshoot that debuted Tuesday, already ranks as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. But by Thursday morning its value had taken a beating over the previous 24 hours. By mid-morning, Bitcoin Cash, which trades on digital-currency exchanges under the symbol BCH, was priced at just over …

Ingenico Group said retailer City Furniture is using Ingenico mobile point-of-sale readers and software services as part of its new POS system used in its 27 stores. Payment card manufacturer CPI Card Group Inc. reported second-quarter sales of $65.8 million, down 10.7% from the same period last year. Its net loss was $2.2 …

Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay service continues to roll out in foreign countries, so much so that 75% of its transaction volume is coming from abroad, according to Apple’s chief financial officer. Apple Pay, which uses near-field communication technology for contactless payments with the iPhone and Apple Watch wearable device, was …

Payments software and infrastructure companies rank third among 24 financial-technology sectors when viewed through the lens of stock price and earnings while point-of-sale device manufacturers rank 23rd, according to a new analysis from an investment firm. The study by San Francisco-based Financial Technology Partners covers scores of publicly traded global …

As merchants and payments processors wrestle with linking e-commerce transaction data with data generated from in-store payments, vendors are starting to offer products to ease that connection. An early player is Creditcall Ltd., which on Monday introduced software that allows processors to combine data streams from a merchant’s online and …

Mobile-payments specialist xPressTap Inc. launched its Tap2App product that enables merchants to accept contactless card payments wirelessly using a near-field communication-equipped mobile device. American Express Co. said it now provides an integrated service to MineralTree, an accounts-payable service, to ease business-to-business payments. Payments provider Integrity Payment Systems announced a partnership with Operation First Response, a …