Atos, parent company of France-based processor Worldline S.A., said Worldline has a deal with payment processor First Data Corp. to buy First Data’s subsidiaries in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, collectively known as First Data Baltics, for €73 million ($85.1 million) in cash. The acquisition comes little more than a week …

With a rapidly expanding e-commerce market, online fraud-detection and -prevention efforts are poised to grow over the next few years. Merchants are expected to spend $9.3 billion annually on these efforts by 2022, says Juniper Research. That’s a 22% increase from the 2017 spending total, though it pales in comparison …

Faster payments may be in the offing, according to the Federal Reserve, but that term refers to the speed of clearing and settlement. It doesn’t mean new payments methods will necessarily go mass market any more quickly. Take mobile payments, a form of digital value transfer based on smart phones …

Speculation of a possible buyout apparently is boosting the stock of payment processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), according to press reports; one equity analyst recently issued a report saying a buyout of TSYS by processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) would be “a home run.” TSYS is scheduled to …

Retailer J.C. Penney Co. Inc. announced it now accepts Apple Pay in its stores. The Penney store card will be available for use with Apple Pay, enabling cardholders to earn shopping points through JCPenney Rewards, the store’s loyalty program. Merchant processor Vantiv Inc. announced it has been selected by Columbia Bank, Tacoma, Wash., to provide …

Now that the Federal Reserve-sponsored Faster Payments Task Force has issued its final report calling for speedier payments everywhere in the United States by 2020, the really hard work can now begin, say some observers. Payments cleared and settled in near real time has long been a goal of many …

Visa Inc.’s top brass talked at length Thursday about payments opportunities abroad, but they also noted that U.S. payment volumes, particularly in credit cards, did quite well in the quarter ending June 30. “Our global business benefited from an overall healthy economy as payments volume grew in every major region,” …

Vantiv Inc. took the unusual step this week of filing a document with the Securities and Exchange Commission to dispute a research firm’s report about its merchant pricing. The payment processor says the report “claims Vantiv deceives merchants by marking up interchange fees.” The report about Vantiv’s allegedly high and …

PayPal Holdings Inc. made it clear on Thursday it isn’t done striking deals with banks and other payments companies. Only days after announcing a major partnership agreement with Samsung Pay, PayPal now says it will work more closely with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the bank’s Chase Pay wallet. And …

Mastercard Inc. is expanding the options for merchants and consumers who want to use Quick Response codes for mobile payments. The expansion of Masterpass QR, announced Wednesday, will enable a merchant to scan a QR code generated and displayed on a consumer’s smart phone and process the payment through the …