The Federal Reserve Board released a paper Thursday afternoon on the question of a central bank digital currency for the United States, and even though the Fed would play a crucial role in any such venture, observers looking for hints on how the central bank is leaning on the issue …

Real-time payments have proven value for many payment needs. Now, experts are looking at mining the potential for real time at the point of sale. The technology to enable real-time payments at the point of sale is available today. But many questions remain: Are consumers ready? Are merchants ready? Is …

As real-time payments cements itself as a payments fixture, bank processors are enthusiastically signing new clients to provide the speedy payment service. Financial-institution processor Jack Henry & Associates Inc., in particular, has been enrolling merchants at a rapid pace in The Clearing House Payment Co. LLC’s Real Time Payments network. …

After more than 18 months of pandemic, are you on the road to normal? In this, our annual catalog of woes and worries, we shine the spotlight on that road’s biggest potholes. Well, nobody signed up for this, right? More than a year-and-a-half after what had been a booming economy …

International payments provider Klarna Bank AB acquired Inspirock, an online trip planner used by 25 million customers annually. Terms were not disclosed.In related news, Klarna said it is working with software-as-a-service platform provider Wix.com Inc. to enable Wix’s e-commerce merchants in 17 countries to accept payments through Klarna.Processor Lightspeed Commerce Inc. expanded its Lightspeed Capital program …

Deluxe Corp. has closed on its $960-million cash deal for payments provider First American Payments Systems, announced in April. The acquisition doubles Deluxe’s payments revenue to $600 million annually, driving its share of the company’s overall revenue from 17% to 29%.Authentication-technology provider LoginID Inc. said it has received an undisclosed investment from Visa Inc., …

The Brink’s Co. announced it has acquired ATM owner and services provider PAI Inc. for $213 million. PAI’s network links 100,000 machines.Banking-technology provider Jack Henry & Associates Inc. announced more than 115 financial institutions are now live on its real-time payments hub, JHA PayCenter. The hub connects to The Clearing House Payments Co.’s Real Time …

As part of its strategy to enable faster electronic payments, Dwolla Inc. on Tuesday released an application programming interface to enable real-time payments through The Clearing House Payments Co.’s RTP network. Fort Lee, New Jersey-based Cross River Bank Inc. will provide the processing link to the RTP network. Development of …

Paysafe Group Holdings Ltd. has launched Neteller Knect, a loyalty program for users of its Neteller digital wallet. The program is active in more than 100 countries. Paysafe earlier this week went public via its merger with Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp. II.Sightline Payments, a startup specializing in payments for the gaming, lottery, and …

As payments providers ramp up fast-payment capabilities that don’t depend on existing card-payment rails, pressure has mounted on the dominant U.S. card networks to enable quick transfers from senders to accounts held by receivers worldwide. Visa Inc. on Tuesday, for example, announced Visa Direct Payouts, which allows users to send …