Competitive Strategies

• Global Payments Inc.’s $4.3 billion acquisition of processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc. closed Monday, Global Payments said. The deal, announced in December, gives the combined company more than 8,500 employees and provides services to almost 2.5 million merchants around the world. • Processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) renewed …

Walmart Pay, the mobile-payments app developed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is now broadly available to consumers as part of version 6.8 of the retailing titan’s shopping app, introduced this week for Apple Inc. smart phones. The app update, available on the iTunes store, says Walmart Pay will be “available in …

First Data Corp. is taking its Clover brand, known until now as a mobile point-of-sale service, to the Web with a launch May 3 of the Clover Online Store. Announced Wednesday at Transact16, the Electronic Transactions Association’s annual conference in Las Vegas, the service enables merchants to set up an …

Visa Inc. will be paying more upfront cash to acquire Visa Europe Ltd., and it paid more in client incentives in the quarter ending March 31. But the leading payment card network still managed to turn a tidy profit and saw double-digit increases in U.S. transaction volumes even though volume …

Total charge volume on Discover Financial Services’s networks fell 5% in the first quarter thanks to a 15% drop at the Discover-owned Pulse electronic funds transfer network. But U.S. Bancorp, which owns the big merchant acquirer Elavon, says its merchant-processing revenue increased 4% due to higher transaction volumes and sales …

Despite all the fuss the payments industry is making over mobile wallets, financial institutions have been remarkably low-key. With the notable exception of giants like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Capital One Financial Corp., nearly all banks and credit unions have ceded the initiative to nonbank players like Apple Inc., …

Merchant processor Cayan on Monday unveiled a new point-of-sale system for small and mid-sized businesses that want high-tech capabilities without the costs and hassles of managing integrated POS systems like those used by national retailers. Global POS terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc., meanwhile, announced the integration of its Verifone Point …

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. has taken another step to broadening the reach of its payments service with the debut Friday of an in-store payment service at a New York apparel retailer. This marks the first time Amazon payments has enabled in-store payments with a merchant, Amazon says. Just a couple …

When The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC enlisted processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) last fall to help it launch real-time payments in the United States, it wasn’t ready to say when the system would go live. On Monday, TCH answered that question and also cleared up what types …

• Fidelity National Information Services Inc. and The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC announced they will launch a pilot for real-time payments in the first quarter of next year. The system will focus initially on bill payments and will use FIS technology along with The Clearing House’s real-time payment platform. …