Digital Currency

Total credit and debit card dollar volume for Bank of America Corp. increased 9% in May year-over-year, with credit card volume up 16% and debit volume up 9%, the Bank of America Institute reported.A research report from Aite-Novarica finds what the report calls “excessively high rates” of identity theft, which the report says …

The drive to achieve mainstream merchant acceptance of cryptocurrency received a boost Thursday as Shopify Inc. and DePay, a Swiss blockchain payments platform, teamed up to enable consumers to send direct payments to Shopify merchants’ wallets.  Shopify will leverage DePay’s blockchain to enable merchants to receive any preferred tokens, with …

Cryptocurrency-based payments platform Wirex listed a new stablecoin, NXUSD, on its platform and added support for it to its digital wallet.In related news, Asia-based crypto-investment platform Bit.Store said it is extending a partnership with crypto-based payments provider Alchemy Pay to add mobile wallets and domestic instant-transfer capabilities to Bit.Store alongside existing credit card and …

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has sent a letter to the chief executives of JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, Capital One, Discover, and American Express asking them to explain the practice of omitting data about consumers’ monthly credit card payments when sending information to credit-reporting companies. The CFPB contends the …

Two of the busiest trends in payments are quick-response (QR) codes and cryptocurrency, and now payments players are finding ways to blend the two. Social Life Network Inc. on Friday said its Decentral Life unit has added a QR code application for its platform supporting digital wallets and payments. The …

Central bank digital currencies are still a relatively new payment method around the world, but now they’re starting to address the issue of user authentication, and at least one is doing it with facial-recognition technology. PopID Inc. on Thursday announced holders of the Bahamian Sand Dollar, one of the first …

Square announced its Afterpay buy now, pay later service is available to in-person point-of-sale merchants in the United States and Australia who use Square Point of Sale, Square for Retail, Square Appointments, or Square for Restaurants. In the first quarter, Square, a unit of Block Inc., said the average transaction size with Afterpay …

Kickfin, a tip disbursement provider, said its tie-in with Visa Direct, the card brand’s push payment service, will enable its clients to send cashless tip payouts directly to employees’ existing bank accounts via eligible debit cards.Buy now, pay later provider Affirm Inc. announced a multi-year extension of its agreement to provide installment-payment …

In a nod to consumers’ preference to have all the contents of a physical wallet digitized—including driver’s licenses and vaccine cards, in addition to payment cards—Alphabet Inc.’s Google subsidiary has introduced a new Google Wallet. The new wallet, which Google plans to make available in more than 40 countries, is …

Payments provider Checkout.com has agreed to acquire ubble, a provider of identity-verification technology, in a transaction set to close later this year. Terms were not disclosed.The March 18 increase in the same-day limit to $1 million helped lift same-day ACH volume in the first quarter to $290.3 billion, up 53.3% year-over-year, Nacha said. Transactions …