Payments players have suspected for the past two years that digital payments were becoming increasingly routine, but now research is indicating they may have become “second nature.” That’s the term Marqeta Inc., the card-issuing platform, used Thursday in announcing the results included in its latest research paper, entitled “2022 State …

The payments platform Choice Inc. has acquired payments provider Direct Payment Consultants, boosting Choice to more than $3 billion in annual volume on more than 7,000 clients. In a separate transaction, Choice has been acquired by Nexa Equity LLC, a private-equity firm. The terms of the two transactions were not disclosed.A startup …

Taking cryptocurrency mainstream involves many tasks, among them eliminating as much as possible exceptions in transactions made with the virtual currency. In response to this need, BitPay Inc. said Thursday its accurate payment protocol has been adopted by cryptocurrency exchanges Bitso and Bitstamp and crypto wallets Edge and Guarda.  The …

Philip McHugh is stepping down as chief executive of Paysafe Ltd. and is being succeeded by Bruce Lowthers, a 15-year veteran of FIS Inc. McHugh, who is also leaving Paysafe’s board, is departing after two quarters in which Paysafe’s crucial digital-wallet business has struggled with declining payment volumes.BankProv, a unit …

The commerce platform Bolt has agreed to acquire the cryptocurrency provider Wyre to enable consumers to spend crypto at Bolt merchants, which will receive fiat currency. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close before year’s end, were not disclosed.In related news, payments platform Nium said it has partnered with cryptocurrency specialist BitPay to allow …

The PCI Security Standards Council published version 4 of the PCI Data Security Standard. Features of the new standard include, among other changes, updated firewall terminology and a requirement to implement multi-factor authentication for access to the cardholder data environment.Processor Adyen said it is expanding beyond payments to offer embedded financial products, including Adyen …

The Brink’s Co. said its BLUbeem point-of-sale cash-management platform is now available through the Clover POS technology from Fiserv Inc.Paysign Inc., a provider of prepaid cards for the health-care industry, reported $8.8 million in fourth quarter 2021 revenue, a 21% increase year-over-year. Purchase volume in the quarter rose 13.2%. Cardholders totaled 4.3 million at …

Cannabis-payments platform CanPay said it has passed half a billion dollars in transactions, processing for more than 800 merchant locations in 31 in states.A cryptocurrency-investment platform called BitStore introduced a Mastercard-branded prepaid card that allows users to make payments at merchants with their crypto assets. Processing is handled by Alchemy Pay.Payments provider PayTrace Inc. announced it …

Payments-technology provider XTM Inc. said it has added Apple Pay and Google Pay to its U.S. Today mobile wallet. The company says it has rolled out more than 100,000 wallets so far.Payments provider Nuvei Corp. said it will process payments for cryptocurrency by holders of the Ledger hardware wallet. With the agreement, holders can buy crypto …

E-commerce platform eBay Inc. announced it is launching a digital wallet, its first, to allow sellers to use proceeds from their sales to make purchases or pay for selling expenses.The Western Union Co. has suspended operations in Russia and Belarus in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The move follows decisions by other global …