Transaction Processing

Backers of the so-called SegWit2x proposal to double block size for Bitcoin suspended the effort on Wednesday, citing a lack of “consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade.” The move, which would have occurred around Nov. 16, was an effort to increase transaction capacity for Bitcoin and relieve upward pressure on …

Hurricanes Irma and especially Maria devastated Puerto Rico-based payment processor Evertec Inc.’s business in September, and the company’s merchant business is in for a long recovery as the island struggles to restore electric power and other essential services to businesses and residences. In reviewing Evertec’s third-quarter results during a Tuesday …

Square Inc. is still losing money, but less so, and the company made it clear Wednesday its sights are firmly fixed on selling its products and services to larger merchants. “We’re not just about micro-merchants,” chief financial officer Sarah Friar told equity analysts in a conference call to discuss the …

Gift card recipients spend on average $38 more than the value of their gift cards, a $10 increase from 2016, says First Data Corp. in its “2017 Prepaid Consumer Insights Study” released Wednesday by the giant processor. Based on the responses of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers, the report found …

Global Payments Inc. was one of the first merchant acquirers to identify the payments opportunities in pairing up with independent software vendors and related firms that serve businesses with all manner of applications, and now those channels are bringing in 40% of revenues, chief executive Jeff Sloan said Wednesday. That …

Prepaid program manager Green Dot Corp. logged a strong quarter and now looks forward to big results from fresh deals with Apple Inc. and Intuit Inc., chief executive Steven W. Streit told stock analysts on Tuesday. Speaking on the same day Apple released a so-called public beta version of its …

NCR Corp. launched the NCR Silver Quantum point-of-sale system that features an integrated payment device with mobile wallet acceptance, a customer loyalty program, and a scanner that are loaded onto a Samsung Galaxy Tab A tablet. NCR Silver Quantum, in addition to the NCR Silver POS software, is the first …

USA Technologies Inc., which provides payment technology for unattended merchant locations, announced it has an $85 million cash and stock deal to acquire Cantaloupe Systems, a San Francisco-based software provider serving the vending-machine industry. Cantaloupe operates in the U.S., Canada, and several international markets, and its Seed Cloud applications include …

Consumers who want to use cash online can now load an Amazon Cash account at U.S. 7-Eleven Inc. stores by presenting cash and a personalized Amazon barcode to the cashier. Users can load between $15 and $500 in a single transaction, with no fees, 7-Eleven says. The company has nearly …

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. confirmed Friday that it will settle its lawsuit against Visa Inc. over EMV debit card transaction routing. That news comes one day after the two leaders in their respective industries settled lawsuits they filed against each other stemming from the massive and still-ongoing credit card interchange litigation …