Real-time payments have existed in various models for a long time. In fact, they’re probably most familiar to consumers as card payments, something that has been embedded in consumer culture for decades. However, in the United States, the development of real-time payments has lagged behind some areas of the world, a …

• By the end of August American Express Co. will not hold merchants liable for counterfeit fraud chargebacks for transactions under $25 as part of its updated U.S. fraud policies for EMV chargebacks. By the end of 2016, AmEx plans to limit the number of counterfeit fraud chargebacks to 10 …

MintChip, a digital cash replacement, went live Tuesday with a handful of retailers and restaurants in a trendy Toronto neighborhood. Canadians anywhere also can use MintChip for peer-to-peer payments. A loyalty and payment-services startup called nanoPay Corp. bought MintChip, which was developed by the Royal Canadian Mint, early this year. …

• Banking and financial-services provider BNY Mellon announced its Treasury Services unit has introduced Tokenized Payments, a service that allows its clients to send real-time or next-day payments to consumers. The service relies on Early Warning Services LLC’s clearXchange network and allows payments using the recipient’s email address or mobile …

•  Costco Wholesale Corp., along with Citigroup Inc. and Visa Inc., officially announced the new Citi-issued Costco Anywhere Visa consumer and business credit cards to replace Costco’s American Express Co. cobranded card; the new card gives 4% cash back on gas purchases, 3% back on restaurant and eligible travel purchases, …

• Noting that U.S. businesses send consumers write 3 billion paper checks annually, Wells Fargo & Co. said it will allow companies to send consumer payments electronically through a new service called Payment Manager B2P, expected to roll out early next year. The service will work with the clearXchange peer-to-peer …

• Visa Inc.’s Canadian unit posted an “open letter” in Canadian newspapers Thursday to protest Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s plan to stop accepting Visa cards in its 400 Canadian stores beginning July 18 because of allegedly high acceptance costs. “Wal-Mart has initiated a public flight—something we never wanted—as they are using …

• The Home Depot Inc. filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. for alleged lax security practices and a preference for higher-margin signature authentication with EMV chip credit cards over more secure PIN authentication, according to the Associated Press. A MasterCard spokesperson told the AP that …

Long-time payments players who like to scoff at Bitcoin as an unproven payments instrument will have to reckon with the robust vote of confidence buyers and sellers of the 7-year-old digital currency have given it over the past few days. Bitcoin’s U.S. dollar value breached the $700 level late Sunday …

• Merchant processor Square Inc. settled a lawsuit filed by a Washington University professor, Robert E. Morley, who said he invented Square’s card reader for smart phones. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Square set aside $50 million in the first quarter to cover legal expenses from the …