Financial institutions are realizing that a smooth experience is as important to consumers when identifying themselves as the authentication strategy itself, regardless of the channel consumers use to access their accounts. This finding is part of a new study from NICE Actimize, a Hoboken, N.J.-based provider of risk-management and compliance …

Payments company PayTrace Inc. launched a browser-based EMV-acceptance service that uses an Ingenico Group EMV card reader and processing from Total System Services Inc. (TSYS). WaveCrest, an issuer of prepaid cards used to pay fleet drivers and reimburse workers, said it has introduced EMV chips on its cards issued in …

Point-of-sale system provider Revel Systems announced it is working with mobile-payments provider LevelUp to integrate mobile order-ahead, in-store mobile payments, and loyalty service for Revel’s restaurant clients. After more than 50 years in the Houston area, First Data Corp.’s TeleCheck Services unit will vacate its headquarters in suburban Sugar Land, …

Zelle, the person-to-person payments service from bank-owned Early Warning Services LLC, added ACI Worldwide, CGI, D3 Banking Technology, and IBM to its list of processor and technology partners that enable their financial-institution clients to offer Zelle to consumers. Processor Fiserv Inc. said Regions Bank will offer digital money-movement services, including …

A Cincinnati-based startup called LISNR is promoting technology that transmits payment data over sound waves. The technology, which the company demonstrated Tuesday at the Money 20/20 financial-technology conference in Las Vegas, is now open for beta and can be used as an alternative to near-field communication, the company said. It …

The Western Union Co. early next year will start allowing money transfers via Mastercard Send, a service that allows people to send money within seconds from a debit card to another person’s debit card, including non-Mastercard cards. Senders can also fund transfers with credit cards or bank accounts, but must …

Facebook Inc. has joined Visa Inc.’s Digital Enablement Program, giving the social-networking giant access to tokenization services globally. First Data Corp. said it will add UnionPay International acceptance to its merchant network, enabling UnionPay cardholders traveling as tourists in the United States to use their cards in stores and online. Eventually, …

Mobile payments in the United States haven’t grown as fast as program sponsors had thought they would, and now the industry is looking at what the reasons might be. After all, the payment method is positioned to consumers as a faster, easier, more secure alternative to cards, and one that …

Private-equity firm GTCR, which bought Sage Payment Solutions in August from its British parent company The Sage Group plc, appointed veteran independent sales organization executive Joe Kaplan as chief executive of the merchant processor, and also announced that it would invest $350 million to support Sage. Kaplan is the former …

Zelle, the bank-backed person-to-person payments network, says a daily average of 65,000 consumers enrolled in the service in the third quarter, helping to push its volume to more than 60 million P2P payments valued at $17.5 billion. Zelle, which is owned by Early Warning Services LLC, says more than 50 …