Some two-and-a-half years after it started, the Federal Reserve’s project to make U.S. payments faster and more secure is laying the groundwork for private industry to come up with something better than the mishmash that U.S. payments are today, but tangible results still could be years away. Fed officials and others …

• Processor Jack Henry & Associates Inc. said its JHA Payment Solutions unit will hook into the The Clearing House Payment Co.’s pending real-time payment system, which could bring 6,300 banks and credit unions served by Jack Henry into the new network. • Digital Check Corp. launched two products this …

Apple Pay has pulled up to the fuel pump at ExxonMobil Corp. gas stations with the release Tuesday of Speedpass+, an iOS app that enables consumers to use Apple Inc.’s mobile-payment service to pay for gas within the app. The app also is available for Android devices. It also works …

The automated clearing house network’s strong growth run continued in 2015’s fourth quarter, exceeding 5% for the fourth quarter in a row. ACH governing body NACHA recently reported that total network volume hit 4.98 billion transactions, up 5.5% from 4.72 billion in 2014’s fourth quarter. While strong, the growth rate …

The prominent, slightly self-effacing graphic on discount grocery-store chain Aldi Inc.’s home page says it all: “OMG! We FINALLY Accept Credit Cards!” Indeed, Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi is believed to be the last major grocery holdout in accepting general purpose credit cards, which typically cost merchants more to accept than the …

An exclusive coterie of card networks runs the business of issuing and managing payment tokens. But that elite club soon may have more members. Looking for a business with growth opportunities? Look no further, ladies and gentlemen, than at the business of the token service provider. A sexy business? Definitely …

Retailers can no longer afford the delays and inaccuracies of manual reviews, and instead should rely on a mix of data, machine learning, and human insight, says Bill Zielke. There’s a new wave of possibility in online fraud prevention. It’s overturning established best practices, making organizations reassess what were once …

Exactly one year ago in this space, we argued, in a little essay called “Less Static for NFC,” that the long-awaited arrival of near-field communication as a mainstream point-of-sale technology had been brought nearer by two developments. One was the decision by Apple Inc. to let its upcoming Apple Watch …

While mobile wallets, near-field communication, and EMV have focused all eyes in the payments industry on the physical point of sale, some mobile-payments executives are starting to prepare for what they see as the fading away of the traditional checkout counter. Technology already exists that allows customers to order ahead …

Despite massive publicity in the nearly 18 months since its introduction, Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payment service still isn’t getting a whole lot of usage. But the few users it has tend to like it. In fact, a December study of 1,279 smart-phone users for First Annapolis Consulting Inc. shows …