Near-Field Communication (NFC)

Block Inc.’s Square unit late Thursday unveiled a suite of hardware and software tools the company says is aimed at helping restaurants manage orders, payments, and their overall business more efficiently as they wrestle with worker shortages and other fallout from the pandemic. The new technology also comes as competition …

Square announced its Afterpay buy now, pay later service is available to in-person point-of-sale merchants in the United States and Australia who use Square Point of Sale, Square for Retail, Square Appointments, or Square for Restaurants. In the first quarter, Square, a unit of Block Inc., said the average transaction size with Afterpay …

Aiming to help developers address friction at checkout, Block Inc.’s Square unit late Thursday announced several new tools for its Square payments platform. The announcement was made at Square Unboxed, Block’s annual developer and partner conference. The centerpiece of the new tools is Cash App Pay for Developers, which enables …

Large retailers that use Fiserv Inc. payments-acceptance technology can add loyalty functions via a new agreement between Fiserv and loyalty-technology provider Exchange Solutions.The global standards body EMVCo said it is developing an EMV Contactless Kernel Specification for contactless payment acceptance around the world. The new specification will take the place of the more than …

Block Inc.’s Cash App unit perked up in the first quarter, as the company reported that usage and instant-deposit volume for the digital wallet both increased during the period. With Bitcoin activity excluded, revenue for Cash App in the quarter grew $203 million, a 38% jump, compared to the first …

NCR Corp. reported first quarter revenue of $1.9 billion, a 26% increase from $1.5 billion in the 2021 first quarter. Much of that growth can be attributed to its payments and network business, which includes the Cardtronics and LibertyX acquisitions made less than a year ago. This revenue of $299 million increased 1,259% from $22 …

Apple Inc. is switching its network affiliation for its Apple Pay Cash virtual debit card to Visa Inc. after more than four years of issuing the card on the Discover Network. Information about the rationale for the move was not immediately available as the news emerged late last week on …

American Express Co. reported a strong first quarter early Friday that betokens a return to pre-pandemic performance for the company, though it also confronts questions stemming from emerging inflation and the threat of recession. AmEx reported overall spending in its crucial travel-and-entertainment business in March reached 99% of the total …

The competition to bring digital-payments capability to sports arenas is getting hotter. FIS Inc. announced early Thursday its Worldpay unit is exclusively processing payments for tickets, concessions, and merchandise at Washington D.C.’s Nationals Park, home of the city’s Nationals Major League Baseball team. As part of the deal, Jacksonville, Fla.-based …

Visa Inc. has spent more than $9 billion over the past five years to boost cybersecurity and reduce fraud, according to an announcement the network made in a blog post Tuesday. Of that amount, $500 million has been spent on artificial intelligence and data infrastructure. As a result of its …