Global investment in blockchain technology will double this year compared to 2017, reaching $1.5 billion, according to a new report from International Data Corp. Investment will increase over the next five years at an annual rate of 73.2%, Framingham, Mass.-based IDC forecasts, reaching $11.7 billion in 2022. “Enthusiasm for blockchain …

Sundance Payment Solutions launched this month, said president Eric Barth. The company works with independent sales agents to sell a suite of payment-processing services. Payments provider Fattmerchant announced it has closed on a $10.5 million Series C funding round led by Fulcrum Equity Partners. The funding will help launch new …

Walmart shoppers who have access to Apple Pay and have a payment preference are twice as likely to use Apple Pay rather than Walmart Pay, but discounts and other deals could tip the scales back in Walmart’s favor, according to a study by Auriemma Consulting Group. Payments provider Century Business …

Processor Net Element Inc. said its first-half payment volume rose 37% year over year to $1.62 billion. Most of the volume came from the company’s North American subsidiary, Unified Payments, which handled $1.4 billion in payments, up 40%. Handpoint, a mobile point-of-sale payments provider, announced an integration with RxTrax, a …

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a federal civil lawsuit Tuesday accusing former Heartland Payment Systems Inc. CEO Robert O. Carr and his girlfriend, Katherine M. Hanratty, with insider trading. Carr allegedly tipped Hanratty ahead of the December 2015 public announcement that Global Payments Inc. planned to acquire Heartland, and …

Macy’s Inc. disclosed that criminals were able to breach sensitive data on Macys.com, the Detroit Free Press reported. Citing a letter sent to customers, the newspaper said Macy’s detected suspicious activity on June 11. The retailer then blocked customer profiles that appeared to be breached. Hackers were able to get …

In the blink of an eye, technology has infiltrated the lives of consumers and businesses everywhere. And the evolution of computing technologies continues to impact economic growth and development, moving the world forward. The significant decrease in the cost of computing over the past decade has also made connectivity ubiquitous, …

Shares of publicly traded electronic transaction processors handily beat the leading stock-market indexes in June, the second quarter, and 2018’s first half, according to an analysis from Barrington Research. In the first half, 28 payments-industry stocks posted a mean return of 15.62%, handily beating the Nasdaq Composite Index’s return of …

The latest findings from a long-running survey of consumers’ payment choices show that new technology is driving a growing number of transactions, but overall usage patterns for credit cards, debit cards, and cash remain stable. The simultaneously released 2016 and 2017 Surveys of Consumer Payment Choice from the Federal Reserve …

Merchants are asserting more control over their rewards programs, and everyone in the loyalty chain is trying to figure out what works best in a fast-changing market. If you’re in the market for mixed signals, rewards programs are sending out plenty of them. Some big merchants such as Target Corp. …