As the automated clearing house network gets set to start a process that will over time speed up all ACH credit and debit transactions to same-day settlement, the ACH’s governing body late this summer took an important step toward controlling the risk posed by certain non-bank players that stand between …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews With Citigroup Inc.’s decision to join the network, the bank-controlled clearXchange person-to-person payments service has dramatically expanded its reach at a crucial time—just as it faces increasing competition from nonbank P2P rivals and in advance of a major rebranding set to take effect next year. The …

• The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to a New York state law barring retailers from imposing credit card surcharges, Reuters reported. A federal appellate court upheld the law a year ago; nine other states have similar laws. • Online business lender Merchant Advance Capital said it …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews As mobile wallets rapidly evolve, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. late Tuesday put out a birthday card of sorts reminding the world that its Samsung Pay service is now a year old in the United States. In that time, Samsung Pay has added payment-card issuing partners, but the …

• Payments processor Vantiv Inc. said its eProtect payment-security service now works with Android Pay. Vantiv also announced its validated point-to-point encryption service now includes VeriFone Systems Inc. point-of-sale equipment. • PayPal Holdings Inc. said consumers now can make PayPal payments using PayLease, a payments and billing platform for property …

• Processor Fiserv Inc. said ATM services provider FCTI Inc., a U.S. affiliate of convenience-store giant 7-Eleven Inc.’s Japan-based parent company, picked it to provide transaction processing for 7-Eleven’s nearly 8,000 U.S. ATMs when FCTI takes over the portfolio next July from Cardtronics plc. • Payment technology provider ACI Worldwide …

• E-commerce marketplace Rakuten.com will allow merchants outside the United States to sell to U.S. customers and collect payments in their local currency through a new arrangement with processor Payoneer. • First National Bank of Pennsylvania added a feature called CardGuard to its mobile-banking app that lets users turn their …

• Avidia Bank announced it is offering same-day ACH payments using technology supplied by linked2pay, a payments-technology company. • Fuel-pump manufacturer and convenience-store technology provider Gilbarco Veeder-Root said Colbea Inc., which does business as Seasons Corner Market, is installing Gilbarco’s Passport Point of Sale system to handle EMV chip card payments …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Companies that have been planning for months for the arrival Friday of same-day automated clearing house payments are getting ready to pounce, and one of the first opportunities lies in platform payouts. Des Moines, Iowa-based Dwolla Inc., for example, on Wednesday is announcing a new feature …

• The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC selected IBM Corp.’s Power8 system for its real-time payments service, expected to go live next year. The IBM system will run software from VocaLink Holdings Ltd., which TCH selected last year as a vendor for its project. VocaLink is being acquired by MasterCard …