Digital Currency

The National Retail Federation reported 2019’s holiday retail sales grew 4.1% over the same period in 2018 to $730.2 billion. Online and other non-store sales rose 14.6% to $167.8 billion and are included in the totalE-commerce services and payments provider Shopify Inc. is offering new businesses what it calls “starter loans” of $200 through …

When Facebook Inc. last year floated the idea of a digital currency called Libra, the notion of a currency backed by a powerful corporation with global reach stimulated some experts to begin thinking about digital money that could be issued not by private companies but by central banks. On Thursday, …

J. Christopher Giancarlo, former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is working with other individuals and with the consulting firm Accenture to develop a United States Central Bank Digital Currency, known as the “digital dollar.” The development will take place under the auspices of a new organization called the Digital …

Data-security provider Very Good Security (VGS) announced an investment by Visa Inc. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.In related news, Visa announced it has met its goal to use 100% renewable electricity by 2020 across its worldwide operations. Visa set the goal in 2018.Google said it acquired Pointy, a company that helps local retailers …

A major enterprise software company and a mobile-technology provider late on Thursday announced an agreement to develop a service they say will provide a universal connection to mobile wallets and “simplify mobile payments for anyone with a phone.” The proposed service will combine application programming interface technology from software vendor …

The Western Union Co. announced it has worked with Du Xiaoman Financial, formerly the China-based fintech Baidu Finance, to launch Western Union international money transfers paid in real time into what the partners say is a majority of bank accounts in China.Ternio LLC said it has cut the minimum balance on its …

Diebold Nixdorf Inc. released the Beetle A1150, an all-in-one point-of-sale system. Variations of the Beetle POS system have been available since at least 2002 from Wincor Nixdorf, a company Diebold acquired in 2016.Payments processor Computer Services Inc. reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $72.1 million, up 6.6% year-over-year, and net income of $12 million, up 5.8%. …

Bitcoin entered 2020 on a high note but remains a volatile cryptocurrency, both in value and in transaction cost. That volatility can reward savvy users but continues to hinder the leading cryptocoin’s usefulness as a payment method. The coin exited 2019 with a value exceeding $7,000, roughly double what it …

MoneyGram International Inc. announced online transactions grew more than 70% year-over-year between Dec. 1 and Dec. 25, a record growth rate for that period. The money-transfer provider, which did not report the actual transaction volume, said 80% of the transactions were initiated on a mobile device.PayPal Holdings Inc. has closed on its …

PayPal Holdings Inc. announced it has signed a commercial agreement with MercadoLibre, a major e-commerce marketplace in Latin America. As part of the deal, PayPal will become a payment choice in the Mercado Pago online checkout for customers in Brazil and Mexico, a move PayPal says could lead to PayPal users getting …