Digital Currency

Affinity Plus, a credit union, announced it has added a real-time payment service based on FedNow and The Clearing House Payments Co.’s RTP network. Ark Labs said it has closed on a $2.5-million funding round led by Tim Draper, a venture capitalist. The startup says the funding will help it as …

U.S. Bank has acquired Salucro Healthcare Solutions LLC, a 20-year-old provider of payments and billing technology for the health-care industry. Terms were not announced. The bank first invested in Salucro in 2022 and has sold its services through Elavon, the bank’s payments entity, as a product called MedEpay. Relay Payments, a …

Flexa, a digital-currency platform, has launched Flexa Components, a program aimed at easing wallet-based point-of-sale payments with cryptocurrencies. In related news, gift card platform Raise said it will accept cryptocurrency in its Raise App, used by 6 million consumers, according to the company. Payments-technology provider Sionic has launched a fraud-detection and mitigation service aimed …

The Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. has begun work on a new QR code payments standard. The goal is to establish the content of a QR code for payments, emphasize interoperability, and include both merchant-presented and consumer-presented QR codes. X9 said the standard is needed to accelerate the adoption of instant payments. Block …

Priority Technology Holdings Inc., a payments provider, reported $15.8 billion in June-quarter bankcard processing volume, up 4.5% year-over-year. For the first half of the year, volume came to $30.6 billion, up less than 1%. Revenue for the company totaled $219.9 million for the quarter, up 21%. For the first half, …

Bitcoin Depot Inc. has added more than 1,500 merchants across six more states to its BDCheckout program, which allows consumers to load cash into their Bitcoin Depot wallets at participating merchants. The expansion brings the number of BDCheckout merchants to 7,723 in 31 states. The new states into which Bitcoin …

Aurora Payments, a payments-technology developer, said it has worked with payments-hardware firm Sunmi and software developer Proxet to introduce a new line of point-of-sale terminals they say is designed for small businesses. The Western Union Co. reported processing 73.3 consumer-money transactions in the second quarter, up 3.8% year-over-year, while revenue in the segment …

U.S.-based Papaya Global, which offers platforms for payroll and payments processing, said it will support payroll and other workforce software for Cegid, a Europe-based provider of cloud software for finance and human resources. American Express Co. announced updates to its U.S. Consumer Gold Card, including credits for spending at restaurants included in …

Two British regulatory agencies will examine the practices and policies of digital wallets offered by technology firms, according to a report on SeekingAlpha.com. Specifically, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator want to know the benefits and risks of digital wallets. Restaurant reservation platform OpenTable said it will offer eligible Visa Inc. …

The U.K.-based payments platform Wirex said it will work with Visa Inc. to integrate digital currencies with Visa cards in the U.K. and European Economic Area. As part of the collaboration, Wirex said it is launching Wirex Pay, a service aimed at easing use of both traditional money and cryptocurrency. Payment gateway Freedom …