Mobile Commerce

With the closing of three megamergers this year, one might think investment opportunities in payments and acquiring could shrink. But that would be an error. That was the assessment of investment professionals speaking Thursday at the Western States Acquirers Association annual conference in Rancho Mirage, Calif.  “It’s a massive industry. …

Recognizing there is no one-one-size-fits-all approach to data security, the PCI Security Standards Council continues to evolve its requirements toward a goal of greater flexibility for payments providers. The new approach comes as the Council contemplates a new version of its core security standard. Gathering in Vancouver, B.C., this week …

Leading online retailer Amazon.com Inc. is bringing its Amazon PayCode service to the United States in a deal with The Western Union Co. that gives consumers the option to pay for Amazon purchases in cash. Seattle-based Amazon announced Wednesday that PayCode, which is already live in 19 countries, will be …

CBD is all the rage these days as a newly available medicine that can alleviate everything from pain to insomnia, and now e-commerce platform provider Shopify Inc. is pitching its payment and other support services to U.S. CBD merchants. Ottawa, Ontario-based Shopify, which serves 800,000 merchants globally and has major …

As integrated payments continue to garner more interest from payments companies amid increasing merchant demand, two point-of-sale system providers are making it easier for developers to create software programs for merchants.  Revel Systems Inc. last week launched Revel Integrated, a program that offers developer tools and infrastructure to integrate their …

It was probably only a matter of time before the gig economy embraced barbering. A New York City-based startup called Shortcut on Monday announced it was starting its national rollout with an extension of its app-based haircut and hairstyling service to Philadelphia.  Calling itself “the Uber of haircutting and barbering,” …

Financial-technology provider Plaid Inc. disclosed that it has received “strategic investments” from both Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc.Digital payments and competition from nonbanks in payments may cost banks as much as 15% of their global payments revenue, or $280 billion, says Accenture in its “2019 Global Payments Survey.”Visa said it is working with insurance …

Payments provider Adyen N.V. said fashion retailer BrandBank will use its payments network throughout markets in Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. BrandBank operates more than 500 stores.Digital River agreed to provide payments and tax and compliance services on the Salesforce AppExchange.PepsiCo has launched a cash-back rewards program called PepCoin, which lets consumers deposit cash rewards directly …

Many payment executives regard the United States as a mature market compared with high-growth countries in Asia and Latin America, but it still has plenty of untapped opportunities, according to Mastercard Inc. executives. Its home country remains Mastercard’s largest market. As of 2018, the U.S. accounted for 33% of Mastercard’s …

With card-based transit payments picking up steam in the United States, a key Mastercard Inc. executive said Thursday that 22% of the network’s physical-world transactions globally were contactless as of the end of 2018. The time to complete a contactless transaction is down to 0.4 seconds, added Ajay Bhalla, president …