E-Commerce

Will Square Inc. apply for a national banking charter, now that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has opened the door to financial-technology firms? As of late Wednesday, the answer remains unclear. “We’re really well-positioned to broaden access to the financial system, which is our core purpose,” said …

Apple Inc. said Apple Pay transactions surpassed 1 billion in the company’s third quarter, ended June 30. During an earnings call with analysts Tuesday, Apple chief executive Tim Cook said the 1-billion mark was triple the amount a year ago. “To put that tremendous growth into perspective, this past quarter, …

It’s a fact of doing business that retailers have to contend with fraud. Now, the cost of managing fraud has increased, says LexisNexis Risk Solutions in its 2018 True Cost of Fraud report for retailers. For every dollar of fraud, merchants pay $2.94, a figure that is 6% more than …

Processor First Data Corp.’s strategy of providing payments integration to independent software vendors appears to be yielding results. The Atlanta-based company said it signed 94 ISVs in the second quarter. That, along with good growth in its direct-sales channel, contributed to the 17.1% growth in second-quarter revenue in First Data’s …

Processor Stripe launched Stripe Issuing, a platform to aid merchants creating their own credit and debit cards. The service enables developers and businesses to create physical or virtual cards with a single application programming interface call to the platform. Stripe said it is not issuing cards directly to consumers. Physical cards …

Restaurant-services specialist LevelUp is being sold to Grubhub Inc. for $390 million. Announced Wednesday, the deal weds Boston-based LevelUp, with its expertise in digital ordering, payment, and loyalty, with Grubhub’s online and mobile food-ordering services. Chicago-based Grubhub also owns the Seamless, Eat24, AllMenus, and MenuPages brands. The deal is an …

Mastercard Inc. posted a 33% increase in second-quarter profit as its worldwide purchase volumes rose nearly 16% and U.S. volume grew 10.5%. New business wins, including cobranded cards, and more customers for existing products drove the higher numbers. “We continue to make excellent progress with cobrands,” Mastercard chief executive Ajay …

Person-to-person payments are hot these days, and PayPal Holdings Inc. has one of the hottest products in the market with its Venmo service. But as PayPal revealed Wednesday, Venmo can create some friction for its parent even as it vitally expands its payments business. PayPal reported $14.2 billion in payment …

Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. expanded its licensing agreement with CardFree Inc., the technology provider for the Dunkin’ Donuts mobile app. The deal includes a perpetual license to the CardFree software and greater control over the mobile-payments technology. Dunkin’ Brands also is licensed to use the technology for future services, including …

An integrated payments strategy appears to be paying off for processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS). The Columbus, Ga.-based company says it signed 45 new integrated payments partners in the second quarter. “Coupled with a strong pipeline of software providers across a diverse set of verticals, we believe this high-growth …