Transaction Processing

Faster payments may be in the offing, according to the Federal Reserve, but that term refers to the speed of clearing and settlement. It doesn’t mean new payments methods will necessarily go mass market any more quickly. Take mobile payments, a form of digital value transfer based on smart phones …

In a payments play on acquire and be acquired, Paysafe Group plc announced Friday that it has a deal to acquire Delta Card Services Inc., parent company of independent sales organization Merchants’ Choice Payment Solutions, for $470 million in cash. Separately, United Kingdom-based Paysafe also confirmed that it has received …

• A London judge has rejected an effort by a consumer group in the United Kingdom to bring an $18 billion class-action suit against Mastercard Inc., according to Bloomberg News. The case is related to the card network’s cross-border transaction fees. • Square Inc. announced that Randy Garutti, chief executive of …

Now that the Federal Reserve-sponsored Faster Payments Task Force has issued its final report calling for speedier payments everywhere in the United States by 2020, the really hard work can now begin, say some observers. Payments cleared and settled in near real time has long been a goal of many …

Vantiv Inc. took the unusual step this week of filing a document with the Securities and Exchange Commission to dispute a research firm’s report about its merchant pricing. The payment processor says the report “claims Vantiv deceives merchants by marking up interchange fees.” The report about Vantiv’s allegedly high and …

PayPal Holdings Inc. made it clear on Thursday it isn’t done striking deals with banks and other payments companies. Only days after announcing a major partnership agreement with Samsung Pay, PayPal now says it will work more closely with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the bank’s Chase Pay wallet. And …

Mastercard Inc. is expanding the options for merchants and consumers who want to use Quick Response codes for mobile payments. The expansion of Masterpass QR, announced Wednesday, will enable a merchant to scan a QR code generated and displayed on a consumer’s smart phone and process the payment through the …

Point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico Group announced Thursday that it plans to buy Stockholm-based Bambora Group from Nordic Capital for €1.5 billion ($1.73 billion). The acquisition will put under Ingenico’s roof a fast-growing international payments provider that gets 90% of its revenues on a recurring basis. Stockholm-based Bambora counts 110,000 businesses …

U.S. Bancorp on Wednesday reported modestly higher results in its merchant-acquiring unit for the second quarter, while ATM manufacturer Diebold Nixdorf Inc. posted a $31 million loss after lowering its financial projections for the year. Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp is the parent company of U.S. Bank and Elavon, the fifth-largest merchant …

The U.K. Treasury Ministry has said it is prohibiting merchants from assessing surcharges beginning January 1. Surcharges could be as much as 20% for purchases like a flight, the ministry said in a press release. In 2010, United Kingdom surcharges totaled 473 million pounds ($617 million). “Rip-off charges have no place in a modern Britain and …