Payments companies drove merger-and-acquisition activity in the financial-technology sector in 2019’s first nine months, according to a new analysis. Payments firms were involved in four of the top 10 deals tracked by New York City-based investment bank Berkery Noyes Securities LLC. The value of the payments mergers totaled $94.1 billion, …

The London-based financial-services technology provider Finastra said Wednesday that it has agreed to offer blockchain technology from Ripple Labs Inc. for cross-border payments processed by its client institutions. In related news, more than 1,500 firms have inquired with the Libra Association about joining the group, the association said, in the …

Fiserv Inc.’s acquisition of First Data Corp. this year was the first of a trio of big mergers that has made 2019 the year of the megadeals in payments. On Thursday, a key Fiserv executive close to the action explained how the $22-billion acquisition served as the capstone to a …

Many payment executives regard the United States as a mature market compared with high-growth countries in Asia and Latin America, but it still has plenty of untapped opportunities, according to Mastercard Inc. executives. Its home country remains Mastercard’s largest market. As of 2018, the U.S. accounted for 33% of Mastercard’s …

In 2011, Marc Andreessen wrote his now-famous article, Software is Eating the World, which predicted that software companies would “take over large swaths of the economy.” Due to the wide adoption of broadband, mobile, and cloud-computing technology, Andreessen pointed out that the ingredients were in place for a huge boom …

U.S. merchants added 600,000 locations for EMV chip card acceptance in 2019’s first six months, and Visa issuers cranked out an additional 10 million EMV payment cards, according to new figures from Visa Inc. In its latest update on the U.S. conversion from magnetic-stripe payment cards to the EMV chip …

With fintechs nipping at their heels, the payment card networks are buying up companies big and small in a range of industries. How far will the networks venture beyond their core business—and at what price? Mergers and acquisitions tend to come in fits and starts, and lately M&A activity involving …

Several backers of Facebook Inc.’s proposed Libra cryptocurrency are having second thoughts because of regulatory pushback, according to a British newspaper report. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission announced settlements Thursday with four defendants accused of falsely promising big returns to consumers who paid in cryptocurrencies to participate in an alleged …

Pursuing integrated payments and software developers that facilitate the payment type appears to be paying off for i3 Verticals Inc. The Nashville, Tenn.-based firm said integrated payments accounted for 51% and 49% of its payment volume in the third quarter and nine-month period, respectively. That’s up from 49% in the …

Dual-interface credit and debit card sales lifted CPI Card Group Inc.’s second-quarter sales figure, the company reported Wednesday. As the nation’s issuers increase their orders for the near-field communications-equipped chip cards—the cards can be dipped into a point-of-sale terminal or tapped against compatible devices to do a transaction—Littleton, Colo.-based CPI …