The Kroger Co. is testing contactless payments at some of its QFC (Quality Food Center) locations. The test includes acceptance of Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Fitbit Pay, mobile banking apps, and contactless NFC cards. Kroger already accepts its Kroger Pay app. The QFC division is based in Seattle.ATM operator Cardtronics …

While the Covid-19 pandemic has raised the issue of speeding stimulus payments and other relief to consumers and businesses, The Federal Reserve system is staying with its planned 2023 or 2024 launch date for its FedNow real-time payment service, officials said Thursday in an update that comes almost exactly one …

It’s been an eventful summer so far for Fiserv Inc., which was hammered by the recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic but in July began to regain its footing, according to top executives who spoke Wednesday afternoon. Revenue for the Brookfield, Wis.-based payments processor dipped 1% in June but began …

TouchBistro Inc., a software developer for iPad POS systems in restaurants, on Wednesday announced the acquisition of loyalty marketing application provider TableUp. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.  The acquisition was driven by restaurant requests for ways to market and offer customer incentives to return as restaurants begin reopening …

Contactless payments apparently have sway with U.S. consumers. Fifty-four percent of them would switch to a new store that offers contactless payments, according to a global survey by Visa Inc. measuring changes in payments habits in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. The effects of the pandemic, and the resulting …

Global Payments Inc. announced a multiyear agreement with Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Web Services to offer cloud-based issuer processing to financial institutions globally. AWS services in the deal will include storage, compute, database, security, analytics, and machine learning. For the second quarter, Global reported $1.52 billion in adjusted net revenue, down 14% year-over-year compared …

Here it is August, and the world is still reckoning with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, the world will be at that grim task for many months to come, we fear, until researchers develop, test, and mass-produce an effective vaccine. In the meantime, the business of payments goes …

With consumers flocking to e-commerce during the Covid-19 pandemic, net product sales for Amazon.com Inc. totaled $50.2 billion the June quarter, up 40% year-over-year. Sales at its physical stores dropped 13% to $3.8 billion.China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest retail market this year, eMarketer Inc. predicted in its “Global …

Shift4 Payments Inc. is scheduled to have its first quarterly earnings call as a publicly held company on Thursday. Ahead of that call, company founder and chief executive Jared Isaacman is expressing satisfaction with the merchant acquirer’s June 4 initial public offering.  The oversubscribed IPO was priced at $23 per share, …

Payments-technology provider Galileo Financial Technologies LLC announced an integration with data aggregator Plaid Inc. Through Plaid’s links to financial institutions, the tie-in will allow Galileo clients to more readily authorize users for automated clearing house transactions. Visa Inc. announced in January a deal to acquire Plaid for $5.3 billion. Social Finance Inc. (SoFi) agreed in April …