Near-Field Communication (NFC)

As they have for rival Visa Inc., transaction volumes are continuing to improve for Mastercard Inc. as world commerce stages its recovery from the impact of the pandemic. “The strong momentum we started the year with accelerated this quarter,” chief executive Michael Miebach said Thursday morning during a session with …

The Zelle peer-to-peer payment network processed $120 billion on 436 million transactions in the second quarter, up 58% and 68%, respectively, year-over-year, according to network operator Early Warning Services LLC.Card-present transactions at small businesses are up 83% over the pre-Covid baseline of March 2020, according to the latest CardFlight Small Business Report. The …

Shift4 Payments Inc. continued its expansion into sports and entertainment venues Tuesday, announcing that it will provide payment processing for Chicago’s United Center, home to the National Basketball Association’s Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League. The payments offering relies on Shift4’s VenueNext technology.  Shift4 said …

Nearly 18 months into the Covid-19 pandemic, consumer usage of contactless payments continues to grow, according to the most recent CardFlight Small Business Report. During the week ending July 18, contactless transactions increased 597.7% from the March 2020 baseline period. Contactless usage has been steadily increasing on a weekly basis …

Ever since the Covid pandemic set in more than a year ago, the payments industry has been abuzz with talk about its various impacts on merchant acceptance. What hasn’t received as much attention is how the pandemic has affected merchant acquiring. It turns out processors and independent sales organizations have …

An Australian Parliament committee held a hearing investigating Apple Inc.’s policies regarding access to the secure element for payment services on its smart phones, according to a ZDNet.com report. Apple argued its hardware-based interface is more secure than a software-focused one. Google, which uses host card emulation software for Google Pay, said …

American Express Co. posted second-quarter numbers Friday indicating the card giant is very nearly back to its pre-pandemic performance and reflecting a steady recovery from the travel restrictions that hampered the company for most of 2020. Driving the improved results was steady improvement in the company’s vital travel-and-entertainment business and …

Buy now, pay later provider Sezzle Inc. launched Sezzle Capital, a program that provides working capital up to $10 million to qualified merchants. The service is built on the Wayflyer funding platform.Square Inc. launched Square Banking, based on the company’s industrial bank, Square Financial Services, which began operating in March. The banking offering consists …

Payments provider Shift4 Payments Inc. announced preliminary results for the quarter ended June 30. It expects end-to-end payment volume—activity it processes rather than directing it through its gateway to other processors—in the range of $11.78 billion to $11.82 billion. Gross revenue will total between $345 million and $350 million.Blockchain payments and financial-services provider Circle …

Sensing that consumers’ growing preference for contactless-payments options will be permanent, Intuit Inc. on Thursday introduced its QuickBooks Card Reader for small businesses. The terminal, which integrates with QuickBooks Payments, supports what Intuit calls smart-tipping functionality. Businesses can customize three tipping options that are displayed on the card reader as …