E-Commerce

Facebook Inc. reportedly is planning a cryptocurrency-based payment system using a digital coin with stable value that would enable the social-networking giant to avoid fees it incurs for conventional card payments, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal cited by the Associated Press. The report says Facebook is …

The big merchant processors Global Payments Inc. and merger candidate Worldpay Inc. reported healthy first-quarter results Thursday. North America performed especially well for Atlanta-based Global Payments, generating $678.4 million in revenues, up 14% from $594 million in 2018’s first quarter. In contrast, European revenues slipped 0.3% to $142.9 million while …

Square Inc. has been a non-traditional merchant acquirer since its birth nearly a decade ago, and a wave of industry mergers won’t change that, according to chief executive Jack Dorsey.  “I do think we will continue to see consolidation, but that doesn’t worry me,” Dorsey, who also is Twitter Inc.’s …

Boosted in part by transit systems and other merchants adopting contactless payments, the Apple Pay mobile-payments service had another quarter of record volume and is heading for a milestone this year, Apple Inc. chief executive Tim Cook said Tuesday. “Apple Pay transaction volume more than doubled year-over-year, and we are …

Mastercard Inc. has been active on the mergers-and-acquisitions front lately, and that’s going to continue, according to company president and chief executive Ajay Banga. The acquisitions typically involve financial-technology firms in all corners of payments. Just two weeks ago, Mastercard announced that it had acquired Vyze Inc., the provider of …

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) on Tuesday said it expects to close its colossal $43 billion acquisition of payment processor Worldpay Inc. in the third quarter following a Federal Trade Commission ruling. The merger, announced in March, would create a processing colossus with payments services ranging from merchant processing, …

PayPal Holdings Inc. said the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority provisionally cleared PayPal’s $2.2 billion deal to buy iZettle AB, a European point-of-sale services provider. The deal closed in 2018. Processor First Data Corp. said merchant-processing revenues from North American clients rose 5% year-over-year in the first quarter to …

In the race to attract and retain today’s always-on, mobile-savvy consumer, most companies are developing their own e-commerce apps at a fast and furious pace. But small glitches, and even major mishaps, can occur when app testing is rushed or overlooked altogether, leading to unhappy consumers, lost sales, and a …

Merchants and card issuers long ago discovered the value of cash in driving transaction volume, but on Thursday Discover Financial Services demonstrated how expensive some rewards categories can be. Discover reported $677 million in discount and interchange revenue for the first quarter, up 5% from the same quarter last year. …

Facebook Inc. chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told stock analysts this week that although advertising will continue to be the primary contributor to revenue, the company plans to add more commerce functions on Instagram, Facebook, and Facebook Marketplace, including features that let users buy products directly through the platforms. Instagram has …