FitPay Inc. has started shipping its contactless, coin-shaped Flip device, which allows users to spend Bitcoin as U.S. dollars at stores. The company said on Wednesday it plans to “ramp up” production of Flip though the first half of the year. The news comes after Fit Pay announced in January …

Payment complexity, combined with a scarcity of engineering talent, makes a new functionality layer all the more urgent for merchants’ payment flows. “Orchestration” refers to software platforms and services that automate … business processes to help streamline and simplify operations management. By automating the configuration, management, and interoperability of disparate …

Lyft’s efforts to lower its costs may be emblematic of a broader initiative among so-called gig-economy firms to tame nettlesome factors like card-acceptance costs. It’s every merchant’s dream to chop card-acceptance costs to the bone. Historically, some sellers, especially those with very large credit and debit card payment volumes, purportedly …

Amazon’s tech-laden Go stores are disrupting in-store checkout. But as other merchants look to follow suit, it’s becoming clear there are lots of ways to get the checkout to check out. Consumers so loathe waiting in line at checkout  that half of all shoppers avoid entering stores with long lines, …

Neither a borrower nor a lender be, counseled Shakespeare’s Polonius. He never met today’s raft of tech-based creditors serving merchants eager to pump out sales. Stores have been offering credit to customers for at least a century. But the latest twist is to offer credit while the customer is at …

Other commercial companies have failed in their efforts to establish an industrial loan corporation, a form of bank, but much to banks’ distress, Square Inc. very well could prove to be the exception. “Fighting the ILC designation is a good way for the banks to slow a dangerous competitor, but …

The payments industry’s relatively rapid move into digital transactions and broader business software is doing much to fuel the consolidation of big payments providers, according to an analysis posted Friday. Just since January, the industry has witnessed deals that will see Fiserv Inc. acquire industry giant First Data Corp. in …

Worldpay Inc. may be embroiled in combining its business with that of Fidelity National Information Services Inc., but that isn’t stopping the huge processor from seeking international expansion. Cincinnati-based Worldpay said on Wednesday it will open two new offices in Australia and has obtained a license to acquire card payments …

As if the announcement of its pending merger with Fidelity National Information Services Inc. wasn’t enough news for one week, Worldpay Inc. on Wednesday said it will acquire Amazon Pay transactions for online merchants. The news means Cincinnati-based Worldpay has become the first merchant acquirer to work with the retailing …

The decision by Cboe Global Markets Inc. to shut down its Bitcoin futures market, news of which emerged late last week, may have been seen as yet another blow to the digital currency’s bid for mainstream respectability. But in some respects Bitcoin may not be any worse off for the …