• Payments-technology vendor Cardtek announced its Digital Enablement Platform for wearables payments. The platform relies on wearables chips from NXP Semiconductors and is aimed at integrating payment cards, transit tickets, and other services in wearable devices. Cardtek cites research from CCS Insight indicating there will be 411 million wearable devices …

• Visa Inc. and chip maker and software provider Intel Corp. announced a two-pronged security initiative, one of which aims to protect the growing Zelle person-to-person payments network, to which Fiserv is providing a link. Zelle is expected to launch early next year. • In related news, Fifth Third Bank …

• Merchant processor Payroc LLC announced it has acquired payment gateway The iTransact Group. Terms were not disclosed. Besides the gateway, the deal brings 6,000 merchants with $1.3 billion in annual volume to Payroc, along with mobile point-of-sale technology and a payment-facilitator platform. • Payments provider Intrix Technology Inc. purchased the business …

With an abundance of smart-terminal options available, the question is, when will EMV-weary merchants be ready to deploy this newfangled technology? Emerging from the haze surrounding U.S. EMV merchant adoption, vendor strategies are taking shape aimed at supplanting traditional payment terminals with flashy platforms that promise access to rich ecosystems …

It was a surprise, but then again, it wasn’t. Leading U.S. point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc. on Sept. 1 reported its second straight quarter of disappointing sales of EMV chip card equipment to small and mid-sized businesses. Less than a week later, VeriFone’s archrival, France-based Ingenico Group, reported a …

• Apple Inc. said it is bringing its Apple Pay mobile-payments service to Japan with its new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus smart phones, and Apple Watch Series 2. Apple Pay will work with Japan’s variant of near-field communication (NFC) contactless technology known as FeliCa. • The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial …

• Paytronix Systems Inc., a provider of loyalty solutions to restaurants and retailers, announced it has added a mobile pay-at-table capability for eateries that includes the ability to redeem rewards. • In related news, terminal maker Ingenico Group teamed with middleware vendor Datacap Systems to install a pay-at-table system based …

Card-brand efforts to improve consumers’ perceptions of EMV transaction speeds took a step ahead this week when a grocer debuted updated EMV software on its point-of-sale systems. New Seasons Markets, including its New Leaf Community Markets unit, is now using the Quick Chip and M/Chip Fast technologies from Visa Inc. …

• Venmo, the peer-to-peer payment service from PayPal Holdings Inc., said all Venmo users now can use the service to make in-app purchases at participating merchants. Announced earlier this year, the in-app payment is available with 11 merchants. • Wireless transaction gateway Apriva said it has completed EMV certification for …

• Q2 Holdings Inc., a vendor of virtual-banking solutions to regional and community financial institutions, announced its plan to begin supporting the origination of same-day automated clearing house transactions on Sept. 23, the day the first phase of a three-phase introduction of same-day ACH is set to begin, as determined …