Credit Cards

U.S. retail sales in January, excluding automobile-related spending, grew 7.2% year-over-year, with online sales increasing 10.4%, according to the Mastercard SpendingPulse report. Sales were propelled by such factors as accumulated savings and wage growth, the report says.Payments-processing giant Global Payments Inc. reported revenue of $2.19 billion on a GAAP basis for the fourth quarter, …

Apple Inc. rattled the payments industry on Tuesday with its announcement of technology that will let merchants accept card and Apple Pay transactions directly on an off-the-shelf iPhone with no attachments, but rivals say they’re taking the news in stride. “We’ll feel some impact, we’ll feel it a little bit, …

While the number of publicly disclosed data breaches totaled 4,145 globally in 2021, a 5% decline from 2020, the bulk of those breaches occurred in the United States. Disclosed data breaches in the U.S. totaled 2,953, or 71% of the global total, according to Risked Based Security Inc. The number …

Apple Inc. launched Tap to Pay on iPhone, a service that enables U.S. merchants to accept Apple Pay and other contactless payment services with an iPhone and an iOS app. Long speculated, especially since Apple’s 2020 acquisition of Mobeewave Inc., which developed the ability to accept payments via an NFC link, Tap to Pay …

Fiserv Inc. has been an acquisitive company since its merger in 2019 with First Data Corp., and on Tuesday its top management said its latest acquisition will accelerate the company’s penetration of the growing market for digital-banking services provided not locally but through a cloud configuration. The $650-million deal for …

If the nation’s second-largest bank is any indication, total consumer payments are booming despite the pandemic, while digital alternatives are gaining ground fast, in part because of the pandemic. Bank of America Corp. reported early Monday spending by consumer customers in January rose 17% compared to January last year, resulting …

Full-service restaurants, one of the hardest-hit merchant segments at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, showed signs of a rebound in 2021, according to research by TouchBistro Inc., a provider of POS and restaurant-management applications. Findings from TouchBistro’s third annual “State of Full-Service Restaurants Report” reveals that 74% of full-service restaurants …

Visa Inc.’s top executives made it plain Thursday afternoon that the story of the company’s growth into the near future is threefold, including cryptocurrency, cross-border transactions, and the buy now, pay later trend. “Visa is enabling scale for BNPL, crypto, and wallets,” Visa chief executive Alfred Kelly told equity analysts …

The vision of turning mobile devices into tap-and-go POS terminals took a big step forward Thursday as MagicCube Inc. announced i-Accept Cloud, an open, cloud-based softPOS acceptance platform. i-Accept Cloud is expected to simplify the creation of new merchant payment acceptance and digital commerce solutions. By connecting the currently siloed …

Top executives at Mastercard Inc. made it plain early Thursday the card network is determined to develop its account-to-account payment capabilities, while maintaining its distance from the dispute between its rival Visa Inc. and the e-commerce juggernaut Amazon.com Inc. over transaction pricing. “That’s fundamentally a question for Visa and Amazon,” …