U.S. third-party developers soon will have new capabilities to access the secure element piece of Apple Inc.’s iPhone when iOS 18.1 eventually is released, a move that could herald further app development and cement Apple’s position among mobile-wallet providers. Apple, without fanfare, revealed this long-desired access Thursday in a simple …

It’s early days for artificial intelligence use, but already most consumers—74%—are concerned it could be used to advance further fraud attacks. That’s the word from risk-management provider Abrigo in its latest survey. In related news, ClearSale launched a suite of tools to help retailers counter online fraud. Fraud worries are …

Debit cards are consumers’ favored method for paying bills, according to a report from bill-payment network doxo Inc. Some 62% of doxo users pay their bills using debit cards, compared to 24% who use the automated clearing house and 15% who opt for credit cards, according to doxo’s “The Bill …

Mobile wallets vie for consumer attention, but tech-based ones are most favored as 54% of credit cardholders use one of the big three—Apple Pay, Google Wallet, or Samsung Pay—finds new research from Auriemma Group. Tracked by the New York City-based advisory firm since 2016 in its Mobile Pay Tracker, mobile …

Merchants’ disdain for interchange is well documented, but one aspect of card-acceptance costs that gets drowned out by the outcry over interchange is that rising processing fees are hitting merchants harder than interchange hikes, according to some observers. Processors’ rate hikes have been running between 0.25% and 1.5% in recent …

Consumers are using their debit cards more frequently than ever and generating higher tickets in the process, according to a report based on data from the Pulse electronic funds transfer network. Active debit card holders now use their cards 34.6 times per month on average, up more than 4% year …

Hospitality point-of-sale maker Toast Inc. said it now serves 120,000 merchant locations as of the end of the second quarter, a 29% increase from the same period a year ago. Its gross payment volume jumped 26% year-over-year to $40.5 billion. Toast posted second quarter revenue of $1.24 billion, a 27% increase from …

PayPal Holdings Inc. Tuesday announced its Fastlane By PayPal checkout service is now officially available to merchants of all sizes in the United States. PayPal began piloting Fastlane, which speeds guest checkout by allowing online shoppers to complete a purchase in one click, earlier this year with BigCommerce Inc. merchants. …

Major payments providers have focused in recent years on signing and providing devices and services for restaurants, but that big bet may be taking at least a temporary beating, according to the latest Small Business Index from the big processor Fiserv Inc. The overall index, which is derived from Milwaukee-based …

Artificial intelligence tools may still be in development, but their utility for acquirers is quickly becoming apparent. “A lot of people think it’s a ‘nice to have,’ but it’s no longer a ‘nice to have,’” Sebastian Builes, cofounder and chief executive at Arcum, a merchant-retention firm that uses AI, told …