Near-Field Communication (NFC)

Mastercard Inc. said it will acquire Ekata, a digital identity services company, for $850 million. Ekata helps identify good customers and businesses and bad actors in real time, it said. Ekata, formerly the business-to-business unit of Whitepages Pro, spun off in 2019 and adopted the new name. The deal is expected …

More evidence emerges of how consumer spending has changed in the past year. Consumers are using their debit cards more for transactions at hotels and motels within the travel sector, according to the PSCU Payments Index for April. Released Thursday, the index shows that debit card use accounted for 35% …

Payments provider Nuvei Corp. has agreed to acquire Mazooma Technical Services Inc., a payment-technology provider for sports betting, for $56 million plus additional consideration upon achievement of performance criteria.Payments fintech Mogo Inc. has closed on its acquisition of a nearly 20% interest in digital-asset trading platform Coinsquare Ltd.The Clipper app, introduced by Cubic Transportation Systems and …

The OLB Group Inc. on Thursday became the latest processor to support contactless payments and ticketing in sports stadiums when it announced it is partnering with EZ Sports Technologies to equip three arenas that are home to amateur baseball teams operated by National Sports Services. As part of the deal, …

Cloud-based point-of-sale system provider Toast Inc. has issued updates for its Toast Order & Pay services designed to smooth the ordering and payment aspects. Announced Tuesday, the updates include the ability to gain a pre-authorization against a credit or debit card using the diner’s own device.  Boston-based Toast also made …

CardFlight Inc. has struck a deal with processor Global Payments Inc. that will see CardFlight’s SwipeSimple point-of-sale technology added to Global’s indirect sales channels. Atlanta-based Global says adding SwipeSimple to its wholesale product lineup will give its independent sales partners an omnichannel payment option. SwipeSimple supports contactless payments, EMV dipped, …

Contactless-technology provider Loop Insights Inc. announced it has integrated its service with an application programming interface for billing from point-of-sale technology provider Vend Ltd. The integration enables onboarding of Vend merchants to Loop’s compliance and reporting platform. Processor Lightspeed POS Inc. last month agreed to acquire Vend in a deal valued at $350 million. …

Podium Corp Inc., a communications and payments provider, is adding card readers to enable face-to-face payments as well as remote payments. Announced Monday, the reader accepts EMV, magnetic stripe, and contactless payments. Podium did not say when the readers will be available or disclose their cost. Podium’s primary payment method …

Card-based biometric authentication took a step forward with an announcement early Wednesday that a technology from Fingerprint Cards AB has complied with reference specifications set by Mastercard Inc. The compliance is a first for fingerprint authentication on a card, according to Sweden-based Fingerprints and Fime, an organization that consults on …

The top 50 originating institutions for automated clearing house transactions accounted for 23.1 billion payments in 2020, up 8.6% over 2019 and nearly 93% of all commercial ACH payments, according to Nacha, the governing body for the ACH. The 50 largest receiving institutions controlled 61.2% of volume with 16.4 billion payments, …