TD Ameritrade announced individual investors can instantly fund a brokerage account using Apple Pay through Apple Business Chat. The capability means investors can use a debit card to deposit up to $10,000 per day via Apple Pay, though the limit may vary by bank. The service is much quicker than …

Remote deposit capture software provider Mitek Systems Inc. said in a regulatory filing “that it has received expressions of interest from multiple parties” and thus is considering various “strategic alternatives” to maximize shareholder value. The only suitor the filing identified is ASG Technologies Group Inc., a portfolio company of the …

The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with two defendants accused of laundering nearly $6 million in credit card charges through fraudulent merchant accounts. Lightspeed, developer of a cloud-based point-of-sale system, released Lightspeed Loyalty, a service that offers merchants a rewards program, automated marketing, customer data reporting, and, for restaurants, …

In an escalation of its bidding war for remote deposit capture software provider Mitek Systems Inc., business-software firm ASG Technologies, a portfolio company of the hedge fund Elliott Management Corp., upped its unsolicited buyout offer from $10 per Mitek share to $11.50 in cash. ASG also said there are no …

Mastercard Inc. and Next Retail Concepts are bringing to retailers a virtual-shopping experience that has shoppable products. The three-dimensional, digital environment, available across any Web browser, enables consumers to view and buy products as if they were in the store. Images are from the store and include products selected by …

Add e-commerce platform Shopify Inc. to the roster of entities that experienced record sales during the recent holiday-shopping weekend, reporting $1.5 billion in volume from Friday through Monday. Two-thirds of that came from mobile transactions. Mobile commerce took the top spot on Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving, according to …

First Data Corp. released its Holiday Insights dashboard, which shows real-time U.S. holiday spending trends, such as total spend percentage increase, today’s most active categories with average ticket and total transactions, and regional payment volume. To date, it indicates retail spending from Thanksgiving through Black Friday increased 6.4% year-over-year. Cardfree Inc., …

More consumers took to their smart phones this past Friday, known as Black Friday, at the expense of shopping online with a desktop computer, finds Akamai Technologies, a Web-services company. Consumers using mobile devices accounted for 57.6% of online shopping on Nov. 23, compared with 35.9% for those using desktop …

After slipping the previous two years, spending at independent shops and restaurants jumped 38% to an estimated $17.8 billion on Small Business Saturday, American Express Co. and the National Federation of Independent Business trade group reported Monday. AmEx founded the Saturday-after-Thanksgiving promotion in 2010 to highlight locally owned businesses in …

As merchant acquirers prepare for an expected tide of holiday purchase transactions, they might notice that more big-ticket spending will be originating this year from mobile devices, according to Internet metrics firm Comscore Inc. Purchases of big-ticket items, which Reston, Va.-based Comscore defines as those costing more than $500, “hit …