Competitive Strategies

Two prominent names in payment card security, ControlScan Inc. and EchoSat Inc., announced Thursday that they will merge. The combined companies, to operate under the ControlScan name, will service more than 775,000 card-accepting merchants across North America. ControlScan works with merchant acquirers and payment processors to provide merchants with a …

• North American Bancard Holdings Inc. and Total Merchant Services Inc. will retain their unique brands and products in the immediate future following NAB’s acquisition of TMS, said NAB chief executive Marc Gardner. NAB announced the TMS acquisition last week. “The TMS brand will remain intact, its sales staff remains as …

• Phillips 66 Co. moved closer to the launch of its mobile-payments service for fuel purchases with the unveiling of its mobile-commerce platform developed in conjunction with P97 Networks Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Chase Pay. • Payment gateway Shift4 Corp. announced its cofounders, J. David Oder and Katherine Oder, are entering …

• Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia reached an $18.5 million settlement with Target Corp. over its 2013 data breach, the Illinois Attorney Generals office announced. The breach affected more than 41 million payment card accounts and the contact information for more than 60 million consumers, the attorney general press release …

As cyber attacks grow more vicious, investors are pouring more money into startups whose technology is aimed at thwarting online thieves. Funding deals for private cybersecurity firms reached 139 in the first quarter, the highest quarterly number recorded over the past five years by CBInsights, a New York City-based research …

TransferWise started out as an upstart processor enabling international remittances, but now it’s expanding into a much bigger arena. On Tuesday, it announced the availability of virtual accounts that let small businesses pay and receive payments internationally as if they had a local account. The service, called Borderless Account, covers …

USAA, a pioneer in developing remote deposit capture, said it is “inviting” banks and credit unions to license the patent rights to its RDC technology, for which the financial-services giant holds approximately 50 patents. Launched in 2006 as a way to enable USAA’s customers, many of whom are in the …

Like it or not, Bitcoin has momentum behind it. On Saturday, the digital currency breached the $2,000 level for the first time ever, and by Monday morning it was trading just shy of $2,200, according to CoinDesk, an online service that tracks cryptocurrency. That represents a quintupling in value since …

• Universal Secure Registry LLC, a developer of computer-security and mobile-payment services, alleges in a federal lawsuit that Apple Inc. and Visa Inc. infringed on its patents for electronic payments and identity authentication as they developed their mobile-payment services. Apple and Visa did not immediately respond to requests for comment. • The …

Consumers may like the leading payment brands, especially Visa, but they don’t connect with them on an emotional level, according to new research findings from payments-industry consulting firm The Strawhecker Group. Asked if they “have any emotional connection” to any of the brands, some 77% of TSG’s respondents said no. …