By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Westernunion.com, the online and mobile-payment service of The Western Union Co., is still small, but it’s the rising star of the world’s leading wire-transfer company, which posted a $355 million fourth-quarter loss in the wake of a recent $586 million settlement with the federal government over lax …

• Coffee giant Starbucks Corp. reported its Mobile Order and Pay feature, which allows customers to order and pay on their mobile phone and then pick up the order later without waiting, accounted for 7% of all transactions in U.S. company-operated stores in the fourth quarter, up from 3% a year earlier. …

With Republicans now in full control of Washington, big changes could be in the offing for laws and regulations affecting electronic payments. But then again, maybe not. Some say he’s a nominal one, but incoming President Donald Trump officially is a Republican, and when he’s inaugurated Jan. 20 he’ll be …

• In yet another event related to payment card data security at hotels, Sentinel Hotel announced it is investigating an incident involving cards used at its front desks after receiving reports from some of its guests of unauthorized charges. • While 22% of consumers overall prefer to receive coupons through …

• Early Warning Services LLC, a fraud-management company, announced an alliance with NuData Security that enables Early Warning to use behavioral analytics and risk assessment as part of its authentication platform. • Money-transfer revenue for MoneyGram International totaled $339.6 million for the third quarter, up 5% on a constant-currency basis …

• Financial-institution processor Fiserv Inc. said its payments segment posted adjusted revenues of $701 million in the third quarter, up 9% from $643 million a year earlier. Operating income rose 11.5% to $242 million. • Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced service changes in the U.S. and Mexico, and lower prices, involving …

• 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 …

• Office-supply giant Staples Inc. has begun accepting Apple Pay on its mobile Web site, m.staples.com. Staples early on began accepting Apple Inc.’s mobile wallet in its stores and on its app. Apple recently made the service available for browser-based payments using Safari. • More than half of consumers believe …

• Noble House Hotels & Resorts, which earlier said it had been notified by the U.S. Secret Service about a possible card-data breach at its Ocean Key Resort & Spa, said it has found through an investigation that card data may have been compromised at 11 other hotels, restaurants, and …

• VeriFone Systems Inc. released an updated version of the EMV application for point-of-sale terminals used on processor Total System Services Inc.’s network that now includes EMV tip adjust among other functions. • ClickBid, a provider of mobile-bidding technology, says it is using hosted fields from Braintree, a unit of PayPal …