Marketing

With a renewed emphasis on retail merchants, Lightspeed Commerce Inc. is launching a tool to help retailers data and inventory forecasting. In related news, point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico says its SoftPOS software development kit achieved a PCI Security Standards Council certification. Montreal-based Lightspeed announced the its four-part plan to boost …

The Department of Justice approved Capital One Financial Corp.’s $35-billion proposal to acquire Discover Financial Services, noting it does not see strong enough competition concerns to scrub the deal, which was first proposed by the two parties in February last year. PointsKash Inc. said it has concluded an agreement with Discover Network to issue …

What may be the first merchant-branded, automated clearing house-based pay-by-bank service has launched. Pay with Spire Inc., a Dallas-based payments provider, says its new Pay with Spire platform enables merchants to accept pay-by-bank transactions with no integration and at lower acceptance costs than credit or debit cards. Spire says the …

With payment terminals as a foundation, PAX Technology Inc. is extending its acquiring support into payments management with its new Evolve payment application.  Meanwhile, Verifone Systems Inc. has lined up $235 million in investment in its latest funding exercise. PAX, which has a U.S. office in Jacksonville, Fla., says Evolve …

Payments provider NMI is counting on the addition of an artificial intelligence tool from Arcum to mitigate merchant retention. Announced Tuesday, the partnership integrates Arcum’s AI services with NMI’s Merchant Relationship Management platform, formerly known as IRIS CRM, to enable Schaumburg, Ill.-based NMI to get advance notice of possible attrition …

Two U.S. banks, Custodia Bank and Vantage Bank, executed what they say is the country’s first tokenization via blockchain of U.S. dollar demand deposits held at a bank, with the resulting transfer and redemption of stablecoins for a customer. The banks say the test carried low transaction costs and fast settlement. …

Payments platform Blackhawk Network announced it will work with Exchange Solutions, an offers service, to develop loyalty programs for businesses. An American Express Co. and Forbes Insight survey found that 73% of consumers choose a credit card as their preferred payment method followed by debit card, 56%, and cash, 50%. The survey canvassed 2,507 …

The Independent Community Bankers of America said its ICBA Payments subsidiary is working with Mastercard Inc. to offer upgraded and enhanced card and payment services for 1,400 community banks. Mastercard will manage all cardholder communication and marketing while ICBA Payments will move its sponsored card programs to Mastercard at no cost and …

MTech Mobility introduced Touchtab, a mobile point-of-sale platform aimed at restaurants and promising faster processing of customer tickets. A recent study by SpotOn found 84% of U.S. independent and chain restaurants want improved POS technology. Buy now, pay later provider Sezzle Inc. announced new app features including auto-applied coupons, notifications of price drops, and smoother …

Payments platform PayMaple LLC launched a new accounts-payable service enabling vendor payments via real-time payments, the automated clearing house, or virtual cards. The last option is expected by the third quarter, the company says. Vitesse, a specialist in claims payments for the insurance industry, is working with Five Sigma Ltd., a claims-management …