Payments companies may not yet be ready to embrace fully the world of blockchains, but some major payments networks are taking steps to deepen their experience in the world of digital currencies. Witness Visa Inc., which early Thursday said it will help banks issue tokens they create on a blockchain. …

The Priority Commerce unit of Priority Technology Holdings Inc. has replaced the subscription billing model for Plastiq, its bill pay service, with a transaction fee per use. It also made all formerly premium subscription tools available to all users. The Small Business Index from the processor Fiserv Inc. indicates small-business sales and total …

Mastercard Inc. announced early Tuesday it is acquiring Minna Technologies, a provider of subscription-management applications. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition will enable consumers to more easily manage, renew, and cancel their subscriptions by providing them a single view of all their subscriptions within their banking apps …

Small-town merchants present unique challenges. Processors that can meet those needs will reap a bountiful harvest. Owning a small business in rural America comes with a lot of benefits, like a strong sense of community, loyal customers, lower costs of doing business, and less competition. However, a small-business owner in …

Driven in part by the rise of open banking and real-time technology, account-to-account payments are poised to disrupt the legacy card networks. When it comes to what makes a payment option attractive to consumers and merchants, account-to-account payments have the key ingredients: real-time transfer of funds, convenience, and a lower …

Retailers providing cash-back services at the point of sale fill a void for many consumers who may live in so-called banking deserts, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says in a recent report on the service. Some, however, charge a fee for that access, among other banking hurdles. The Cash-back Fees …

As the payments business attracts headlines for such innovations as open banking and account-to-account transfers—and rightly so—it’s easy to forget what’s going on with some fundamental services that keep finding new uses. That’s a pity, since focusing on such products is a useful reminder of the industry’s ingenuity. Take, for …

If fraud prevention remains tied to single regions, online payment losses will continue to mount. The global financial ecosystem has become incredibly interconnected with the growth of e-commerce, where global sales approached the $6-trillion mark in 2023. Fueled by new payment methods and categories like mobile and social commerce, online …

European banks are beginning to roll out a new digital wallet called wero that initially provides account-to-account payments and is expected to be expanded to retail payments as well. If so, wero could prove to be a competitive threat to Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc., which dominate European payments, raising …

Strava, an online community for athletes, said it is working with Block Inc.’s Cash App unit to launch this year’s HBCU Homecoming Tour, which features running events at U.S. universities. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is reportedly seeking comment on Apple Inc.’s practices with respect to contactless payments as the regulator works on …