The first Bitcoin futures contracts began trading at 6 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday and almost right away the volume of activity crashed a Web site operated by the exchange, Cboe Global Markets Inc. After an initial run up, Bitcoin was trading around $16,500 by 10 a.m. Monday. A rival exchange, …

Consumer revolving credit jumped 9.9% on an annualized basis in October, seasonally adjusted preliminary data from the Federal Reserve show. Revolving credit outstandings, most of which are credit card debt, hit $1.01 trillion, up 5.9% from $955.3 billion in October 2016. PayCargo LLC, an online-payment platform that allows shippers and carriers to …

Whether he intended to or not, Ken Chenault may well have touched off a debate about what constitutes the ideal governance structure for a global payments network. Chenault, who will retire early next year as chairman and chief executive of American Express Co., charged this week that his two big …

Credit and debit card fraud at the point of sale is declining precipitously two years after the payment card networks’ EMV chip card liability shifts took effect, but identity, online, and so-called fallback fraud all have risen, according to an analysis of card issuers’ experiences from Auriemma Consulting Group. New …

Finastra, a banking-technology services firm, announced PNC Bank, a unit of The PNC Financial Services Group Inc., is using its services as part of the bank’s participation in RTP, the real-time payments service from The Clearing House. Fifty-percent of U.S. banks plan to increase their investments in real-time payment systems in …

As long as consumers have good reason to believe that they will have their privacy infringed, it will be impossible for politicians to introduce a cashless society. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to know that in the coming years, digital transformation will continue to make shopping more convenient. And …

The plague of data breaches is bad enough. What’s worse is the impact it’s having on outdated and overburdened systems. Here’s what can be done about it. Every year, more and more consumers fall victim to card-payment fraud. Fraudsters are adapting quickly to security measures, exploiting human trust, and finding …

Digital versions are steadily increasing their share of the gift card market. Could they breathe new life into mobile wallets? If the standard knock on gift cards is that they’re too easy, too quick, too thoughtless with respect to the recipient, then the same could go double for digital cards. …

Mastercard’s decision to remove the  signature requirement comes as authentication  measures improve in the payments industry.  But what comes next is still a huge question. As unique as signatures are, their value as a way of authenticating a credit or debit card transaction has long passed, a realization many consumers …

It’s been a busy year on the M&A front for merchant acquirers. What’s driving the deals, and what’s ahead in 2018? The year is coming to a close with nearly $14 billion in mergers and acquisitions either announced or completed in the merchant-acquiring industry. The number of deals could easily …