The mobile-payments giants Alipay and WeChat Pay  are working hard to expand acceptance outside China, and the United States is a prime market. Here’s what that could mean for U.S. merchants— and for the comparatively less successful U.S. wallets. In the four years since its launch, Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payment …

Vetting a new merchant takes a lot of work, but the plethora of nontraditional data may make it a little easier. How do you tell the difference between a bot applying for a merchant account and an actual human doing it? The answer might lie in social-media profiles and a …

Processor Global Payments Inc. announced its president and chief operating officer, David Mangum, plans to leave. No details were immediately available about why or when Mangum will depart. Chief executive Jeff Sloan and Cameron Bready, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer, have extended their employment agreements through August …

ControlScan said its SecureEdge platform now offers PCI Data Security Essentials, a service that enables payments providers to offer a more user-friendly alternative to the traditional PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire to small businesses. Square Inc. released two ways to accept card payments, one via a computer and another using the Lightning …

Merchant processor Payment Data Systems Inc. said its FiCentive prepaid card subsidiary will provide program management and processing and develop Web and mobile applications for University Fancards, which offers university-branded gift and reloadable prepaid cards. Speedpay Inc., Western Union’s bill-payment unit, has adopted a customer-guidance tool based on artificial intelligence …

Wire-transfer provider MoneyGram International Inc. once again is expanding to more markets. This time, the company announced Monday, consumers in Ireland, Poland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark are the latest to have access to the company’s online platform. MoneyGram’s online service is now available in 15 nations. In July, it expanded …

Payment-industry incumbents, particularly the global credit card networks and their allied banks and processors, can’t rest on their laurels lest fast-growing mobile and non-card payment systems in much of the world leave them in the dust. That was the conclusion of payments researchers Friday who spoke at the Mobile Payments …

Online-shopping site jClub Inc. said its customers can check out with a single click on mobile or desktop devices using the Google Pay button. Google Pay is a 3-year-old mobile-payment service from Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit. Facing growing concerns about privacy protections on its popular Venmo person-to-person payments service, executives …

Back-to-school shopping means big dollars for many merchants. In fact, the National Retail Federation predicts parents will spend $82.8 billion, and both online and brick-and-mortar retailers are hoping to get a piece of the action. Unfortunately, so are the fraudsters. This year’s back-to-school shopping, already in progress, is sure to …

Despite its detractors, the so-called gig economy that relies on freelance workers looks like it’s here to stay. And Lyft Inc., a leading ride-share provider that’s a major player in the gig economy, would like to see the payments industry evolve to meet the gig economy’s needs. Ashwin Raj, the …