Credit Cards

The Electronic Payments Coalition has opened a new front in its battle to prevent passage of the Credit Card Competition Act: it’s recruiting social-media influencers to join its cause. In June, the EPC put out a memo on the new tactic as part of its “Hands Off My Rewards” campaign …

Tokenized credentials are supposed to stop fraud by masking card account numbers when a transaction is processed, but according to Visa Inc. global losses owing to illegitimate tokens totaled $450 million last year. That’s bad enough to prompt the network to announce early Wednesday it is launching Visa Provisioning Intelligence, …

Buy now, pay later provider Zip Co. said U.S. merchants that accept Google Pay online can integrate Zip’s Pay-in-4 service, backed by WebBank, for Google Pay transactions. Trustly Group AB, an open-banking payments platform, announced its transaction volume on the Real Time Payments network increased 29% in the third quarter over the …

Discover Financial Services said its board of directors has appointed Michael G. Rhodes chief executive and president. Rhodes, who will take office on or before March 6, succeeds interim CEO and president John Owen, who will continue as a Discover board member. Rhodes comes to Discover from TD Bank, where he was …

Holiday sales were robust in November, giving merchants reason to be optimistic about overall spending for the holiday shopping season, according to the National Retail Federation. Total retail sales in November, excluding automobiles and gasoline, rose 0.77% month-over-month on a seasonally adjusted basis, and 4.24% on an unadjusted basis year-over-year,  …

With Congress scheduled to adjourn Dec. 15, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., made a last-minute push on the Senate floor late Thursday, calling for a vote on the Credit Card Competition Act before adjournment. Durbin’s remarks, which also pushed back against arguments by  card networks and card issuers that the proposed …

SoundHound AI Inc. said it will acquire SYNQ3 Restaurant Solutions, a voice artificial intelligence and technology provider for restaurants, in a deal valued at $25 million. Once completed, the deal will extend SoundHound’s services to 10,000 locations and more than 25 national and multinational chains. The deal is expected to close …

Paze, the upcoming digital wallet backed by banks, has lined up an integration with Endava plc, a software-development firm. Announced Wednesday, the integration, which will be available when Paze launches in 2024, means merchants that use Endava can offer the Paze online checkout. London-based Endava says the simplified checkout will …

MiCamp Solutions said it increased its investment and involvement with Cocard, a unique owner-operated independent sales organization. Terms were not disclosed, though MiCamp said collectively the alliance will serve more than 46,000 merchants and process more than $40 billion in annual transaction volume. Payments provider Nuvei Corp. has agreed to process online transactions …

Apple Inc. may be looking for a new bank to issue its Apple Card, but the big question is whether any potential candidate will want to take it on, some observers say. Apple is apparently taking the initiative in finding a replacement for Goldman Sachs Group, which has issued Apple’s …