Payment Data Systems Inc. said it processed $3.4 billion in volume in 2018, a 21% increase from 2017’s $2.8 billion. Risk-management firm Featurespace raised $32.3 million from a funding round led by Insight Venture Partners. Payments provider ACI Worldwide said it will process real-time payments for 17 banks in Hungary …

A consortium of academics is betting it has the formula to create a high-performance blockchain network capable of processing payments faster and at greater scale than competing blockchain networks. The network, called Unit-e, is expected to process transactions confirmed by consensus on the blockchain in 15 seconds. If realized, the settlement …

Discover Financial Services said its payments services operation, which includes network partners, Diners Club International, and the Pulse electronic-funds transfer network, processed $60.5 billion in total volume in the fourth quarter, a 12% increase year-over-year. Volume on Pulse jumped 11% to $47.1 billion owing to new issuers as well as …

Zelle, the peer-to-peer payments service, had a banner 2018 with $119 billion in payments on 433 million transactions processed via its network of banks. That is a 58.7% increase in payments from 2017’s total of $75 billion and a 75.3% increase in transaction volume from 247 million. The increases were …

Data-communications provider Transaction Network Services acquired R2G Services, a Chicago-based provider of a market-data and managed-hosting platform; terms were not disclosed. Payment processor Repay Holdings LLC, which private-equity firm Corsair Capital acquired in 2016, said it has a definitive merger agreement with Thunder Bridge Acquisition Ltd., a special-purpose acquisition firm …

Microsoft Corp. says it plans to retire its Microsoft Wallet mobile app, a distant also-ran in the mobile-wallet market, on Feb. 28. The disclosure came in a brief recent post on a company Web site. “Starting on Feb. 28, 2019, the Microsoft Wallet app will be officially retired,” the post says. …

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Chase credit card unit and the Marriott International Inc. hotel chain introduced a contactless cobranded card, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card, to replace the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus card. American Express Co. announced the rebranding of its current portfolio of cards for customers of Marriott International Inc.’s …

The activist hedge fund behind the move to take remote deposit capture software provider Mitek Systems Inc. private said Tuesday that it has acquired a 4% stake in eBay Inc. and is advocating for changes to improve the online marketplace’s profitability, including through payments opportunities. New York City-based Elliott Management …

The European Commission, the European Union’s antitrust regulator, fined Mastercard Inc. €570.6 million ($648.2 million) for restricting merchants’ ability to sign with an acquirer in another EU single-market country with interchange rates lower than rates in the merchant’s home country before December 2015, when regulations capped EU interchange. The Commission …

The two co-founders of online transaction processor Adyen are now billionaires thanks to last week’s market upturn, according to Forbes. Chief executive Pieter van der Does holds a 4.8% stake in the company, which went public last year. Arnout Schuijff, chief technology officer, holds a 6.4% interest. Among Adyen’s U.S. …