Independent gas stations will have their hands full with the shift to EMV, but there are ways to mitigate the pain. And ISOs can help. Things are looking up for U.S. gas stations. In 2018, vehicle registrations hit 276 million—up 6 million from 2017. And that number is set to …

The Fed’s latest probe into debit card costs and revenues has merchants clamoring for lower regulated interchange. Merchants have said it before, and they’re saying it again: It’s high time the Federal Reserve lowers its regulated debit card interchange rate. The call by the Retail Industry Leaders Association came shortly …

Churn is still the overarching theme in a dynamic market dominated by mobile options and eyeing digital currency. You can tell a lot about the dynamism of a market by how often its players turn over—how many new companies enter the market from year to year and how many fail …

The gravitational pull toward M&A is claiming some of the industry’s biggest merchant processors. Are more mega-deals inevitable? There’s nothing new about mergers and acquisitions in the merchant-processing business. These combinations have been going on for years, after all, as acquirers seek to penetrate new markets or bulk up for …

Boosted in part by transit systems and other merchants adopting contactless payments, the Apple Pay mobile-payments service had another quarter of record volume and is heading for a milestone this year, Apple Inc. chief executive Tim Cook said Tuesday. “Apple Pay transaction volume more than doubled year-over-year, and we are …

Mastercard Inc. has been active on the mergers-and-acquisitions front lately, and that’s going to continue, according to company president and chief executive Ajay Banga. The acquisitions typically involve financial-technology firms in all corners of payments. Just two weeks ago, Mastercard announced that it had acquired Vyze Inc., the provider of …

PayPal Holdings Inc. said the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority provisionally cleared PayPal’s $2.2 billion deal to buy iZettle AB, a European point-of-sale services provider. The deal closed in 2018. Processor First Data Corp. said merchant-processing revenues from North American clients rose 5% year-over-year in the first quarter to …

The conditions for the widespread adoption of contactless payments using chip cards are in place, asserts a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. But when that will happen and what will trigger it are unknown in the Fed report, “Tap to Pay: Will Contactless Cards Pave the …

Merchants and card issuers long ago discovered the value of cash in driving transaction volume, but on Thursday Discover Financial Services demonstrated how expensive some rewards categories can be. Discover reported $677 million in discount and interchange revenue for the first quarter, up 5% from the same quarter last year. …

Facebook Inc. chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told stock analysts this week that although advertising will continue to be the primary contributor to revenue, the company plans to add more commerce functions on Instagram, Facebook, and Facebook Marketplace, including features that let users buy products directly through the platforms. Instagram has …