Credit Cards

The Electronic Payments Coalition has launched the latest salvo in its offensive against legislation seeking to regulate credit card interchange. This time the thrust takes aim at federal and state legislative efforts. At the federal level, EPC executive chairman Richard Hunt said during a press conference late Wednesday morning the …

American Express Co. has acquired software developer Center. Terms of the deal, announced late Thursday, were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter. The deal will provide AmEx’s corporate and small-business cardholders with an integrated expense-management platform that delivers real-time visibility into all employee spending, …

Ten years ago, the U.S. payment card market made its shift to EMV chip cards, and along with that the industry prepared for more contactless payments. That work by issuers and card brands appears to have paid off because 92% of consumers are now familiar with NFC, the technology that …

Stripe Inc. has doubled its office space in Chicago, leasing more than 44,000 additional square feet on the fifth floor of a building in the city’s River North neighborhood and bringing its total space to about 89,000 square feet, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. Business-technology provider Globant announced it has developed systems for …

Compliance services provider LegitScript released a suite of services to help with merchant risk management. Among them is its Xray AI Risk Intelligence platform that can help with scanning merchant Web sites for card network violations, automatically detecting merchant category codes, and matching merchants against LegitScript’s risk intelligence database. Visa Inc. is working …

With expectations growing that the Credit Card Competition Act will soon be reintroduced in Congress, proponents of the bill feel its prospects for passage are better than ever. Helping fuel this optimism is growing bipartisan support for the bill, proponents say. “The Senate Judiciary Committee [hearing in November] showed there …

Sightline Payments, a specialist in payments for the gaming industry, announced it has completed a recapitalization, with participation from “most” existing major investors. The 15-year-old company estimates the U.S. digital gaming industry at $30 billion in annual revenue. Generation Z is overwhelmingly adopting digital-payment methods, with 92% using peer-to-peer payment …

Cybersecurity provider VikingCloud Inc. announced a multiyear agreement with processor Fiserv Inc. to help small and medium-size merchants counter cyber risks. Cross-border remittance provider DolFinTech said it will work with payments platform Green Dot Corp. to offer a direct-deposit account based on Green Dot’s embedded-finance capabilities and related services. American Express Co. said its eligible …

Mastercard Inc. announced early Wednesday the launch of One Credential, a digital-payment solution that supports multiple payment methods such as credit, debit, and prepaid, as well as installment loans, on a single card. Targeted primarily at Gen Zers, One Credential allows consumers to tailor their payment methods to better manage …

Separate stockholder meetings for Capital One Financial Corp. and Discover Financial Services voted to approve Capital One’s proposed acquisition of Discover, a deal that was first proposed a year ago. Cap One says it now expects the $35.3-billion transaction to close early this year, subject to approval from the Federal Reserve System’s Board of …