Competitive Strategies

Smaller retailers haven’t yet closed the EMV-acceptance gap with big ones, but they are making progress on installing EMV chip card readers at the point of sale, according to findings from a recent survey for the National Retail Federation. The online poll found that 60% of small brick-and-mortar retailers had …

The news just keeps getting worse for Digiliti Money Group Inc., a small fintech company that provides remote deposit capture software and services for banks and credit unions. On Monday, Digiliti said it is considering “strategic options” that include a sale of the company or a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. …

Less than two weeks after a hard fork in its code that some observers feared might devalue Bitcoin, the digital currency is riding high. Early Sunday, Bitcoin’s price soared past $4,000 for the first time. The coin traded at $4,106 by late afternoon, up 7% over the previous 24 hours, …

Factor4 LLC, which offers a white-label gift card and loyalty solution to independent sales organizations and small businesses, has integrated its platform with Click a Waiter Inc., an online-ordering service for restaurants. Payments provider Merchant Consulting Group Inc. announced its payments service will be integrated into Parkloco’s parking-focused software. Processor JetPay Corp. said second-quarter …

Planet Payment Inc., a specialist processor focused on multi-currency and related international payment services, this week said it has begun “a process to explore and evaluate potential strategic alternatives focused on maximizing shareholder value,” a process that could result in the sale of the company. The review also could result …

Acquirers wanting to tap into the ever-growing number of e-commerce merchants, especially small businesses, might do well to target a handful of U.S. cities with large bases of retail entrepreneurs. E-commerce platform provider Volusion released this week a list of the top 10 cities based on volume of merchants and …

Consumer revolving credit outstandings, most of which are credit card debt, hit a record $1.02 trillion in June, the Federal Reserve reported this week. The new high is 0.1% higher than the old record set in April 2008, just as the financial crisis of 2008-09 was gathering steam. Relying on leaked …

In a brief filed Aug. 7, the U.S. Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court not to take up an appeal over a lower-court ruling upholding a so-called steering practice by American Express Co. The DoJ, which in 2010 joined 17 states in suing AmEx over the practice, argues …

The estimated number of U.S. ATMs—including those deployed by financial institutions and independent operators, and branded machines—increased 10.5% to at least 475,000 and as many as 500,000, the ATM Industry Association said this week. The previous estimate, released in 2015, was 430,000, says David Tente, ATMIA’s executive director for the …

The financial crisis of 2007-09 forced many banks to retreat from small-business lending, leaving a gap that digital-payments companies have rushed to fill. The latest move in this direction came Thursday, when PayPal Holdings Inc. said it has a deal to buy Swift Financial Corp., a Wilmington, Del.-based lender founded …