Payment Data Systems Inc. said it processed $3.4 billion in volume in 2018, a 21% increase from 2017’s $2.8 billion. Risk-management firm Featurespace raised $32.3 million from a funding round led by Insight Venture Partners. Payments provider ACI Worldwide said it will process real-time payments for 17 banks in Hungary …

A consortium of academics is betting it has the formula to create a high-performance blockchain network capable of processing payments faster and at greater scale than competing blockchain networks. The network, called Unit-e, is expected to process transactions confirmed by consensus on the blockchain in 15 seconds. If realized, the settlement …

Zelle, the peer-to-peer payments service, had a banner 2018 with $119 billion in payments on 433 million transactions processed via its network of banks. That is a 58.7% increase in payments from 2017’s total of $75 billion and a 75.3% increase in transaction volume from 247 million. The increases were …

The activist hedge fund behind the move to take remote deposit capture software provider Mitek Systems Inc. private said Tuesday that it has acquired a 4% stake in eBay Inc. and is advocating for changes to improve the online marketplace’s profitability, including through payments opportunities. New York City-based Elliott Management …

The collapse of Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies in 2018 led to a general feeling of pessimism in the mainstream payments industry about the prospects for digital currencies, but at least one specialist processor apparently bucked the trend toward malaise. In a year-end review of its performance, Atlanta-based BitPay Inc. …

TD Ameritrade announced individual investors can instantly fund a brokerage account using Apple Pay through Apple Business Chat. The capability means investors can use a debit card to deposit up to $10,000 per day via Apple Pay, though the limit may vary by bank. The service is much quicker than …

  Will Graylin, a payments entrepreneur and former Samsung Pay executive, launched OV Loop, which includes two voice-activated messaging products, OV App and OV Pro. OV App includes OV Pay, a single-tap payment application under development with financial institutions. Online merchants that don’t process local currencies fail to consummate 6% …

Person-to-person transactions in real time pose unique risks. Here’s how to manage them while ensuring a great experience for users. Splitting the lunch bill. Paying a friend back for picking up those last-minute tickets. Covering the cost for your kid’s college textbooks. Each of these scenarios represents an opportunity for …

E-commerce, online bill payments, and other forms of card-not-present payments continued their strong growth last year to capture a bigger share of total card payments, according to newly released Federal Reserve data. The number of what the Fed calls remote payments using general-purpose payment cards grew 22.8% in 2017 from …

Technology provider Nxt-ID Inc. said its planned spinoff of its payment assets into an independent, publicly traded company has been delayed until the first quarter of 2019 owing to the company’s inability to come to terms with its primary lender, which holds security interests in the assets targeted for the …