• E-commerce marketplace Rakuten.com will allow merchants outside the United States to sell to U.S. customers and collect payments in their local currency through a new arrangement with processor Payoneer. • First National Bank of Pennsylvania added a feature called CardGuard to its mobile-banking app that lets users turn their …

By John Stewart@DTPaymentNews Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s deal with JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s ChaseNet processing network, announced Thursday morning, proves that the nation’s biggest retailer can make peace with the big card brands if the terms are right. And it may indicate bigger prospects for Chase’s ambitious merchant-acquiring operation. Under the …

• The total value of contactless transactions worldwide will reach nearly $500 billion next year, up fully 56% from an estimated $321 billion in 2016, according to Juniper Research. • Samsung Electronics America Inc. said more than 500,000 replacement Galaxy Note7 phablets have arrived in the U.S. and will be available …

Apple Pay has brought the one-click simplicity of its mobile-payments service to the desktop and mobile browsers. Apple Inc. on Tuesday released an update for Apple computers that enables consumers to pay using its Apple Pay mobile wallet on participating Web sites, such as Lululemon.com and Apple.com, but only when …

• The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC selected IBM Corp.’s Power8 system for its real-time payments service, expected to go live next year. The IBM system will run software from VocaLink Holdings Ltd., which TCH selected last year as a vendor for its project. VocaLink is being acquired by MasterCard …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Merchants would like nothing more than to decipher what they call the “mysteries” of the payments universe, a select group of them told attendees Thursday at the Western States Acquirers Association conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. These mysteries, they said, include knowing whom to call when a problem …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The dispute between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Visa Inc. over payment card acceptance costs intensified Thursday when the retailer’s Walmart Canada unit announced that it will extend its ban on Visa credit card acceptance from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to its 16 stores in the province of Manitoba. …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews With malware and hacker attacks on payment card-accepting devices increasing in sophistication, the PCI Security Standards Council has announced updated rules for protecting such devices. “The updates are designed to stay one step ahead of criminals who continue to develop new ways to steal credit and debit …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews If you think the upcoming 2016 elections are only about The Donald versus Hillary, think again. A bill in the House of Representatives that would significantly alter the controversial Dodd-Frank Act and repeal its contentious Durbin Amendment passed the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday on a 30-26 …

• A consumer class-action lawsuit filed by the United Kingdom government’s former financial-services ombudsman against MasterCard Inc. seeks 14 billion pounds ($18.6 billion) in damages for allegedly charging excessive merchant fees between 1992 and 2008, expenses merchants passed on to consumers. In a statement, MasterCard said it “firmly” disagrees with …