PayPal Holdings Inc. is expanding its portfolio of installment-payment options by introducing Pay in 4, a short-term financing program. PayPal says the new option, which allows consumers to pay for a purchase over four interest-free payments, can help merchants drive customer conversions, hike revenue, and enhance loyalty without taking on additional …

Payments provider Citcon USA LLC said early Thursday it is unveiling plugins that will allow e-commerce platforms like Commerce Cloud, Magento, Salesforce, Shopify, WooCommerce, and others to offer merchants the ability to accept Alipay, WeChat Pay, and China UnionPay, as well as credit cards, without coding. The development represents a …

Policymakers have much work ahead when reviewing cryptocurrencies like the proposed Libra, a European regulator said Wednesday. In related news, a cryptocurrency payment plugin debuts for WordPress. The Libra cryptocurrency project led by Facebook Inc. has “undoubtedly been a wake-up call for central banks and policymakers,” said Benoit Coeure, a …

E-commerce sales accounted for 30% of the total spend in the second quarter, according to First Data Corp.’s “2018 Payments and Commerce Mid-Year Review.” Overall spending in the quarter increased 4.8% from the same quarter a year ago. By channel, in-store sales increased 4% and e-commerce increased 6.7%. The report …

Despite obstacles, payment processors and fintechs increasingly are looking at cross-border e-commerce for high-growth opportunities. Go global. That’s the credo an increasing number of payment processors and financial-technology firms subscribe to as technology transforms cross-border commerce from yesterday’s luxury into an attainable option for consumers today. Researcher Talie Baker, a …

Payments provider NXT-ID Inc. announced its FitPay Inc. subsidiary is providing the payments technology for the vivoactive 3, a new smart watch from Garmin International Inc. Dubbed Garmin Pay, the service supports contactless payments made with Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. credit and debit cards from major issuing banks. Earlier this week, Fitbit Inc. introduced Fitbit Pay. In …

• Braintree launched Braintree Auth as an invitation-only service in beta. The service streamlines integration of Braintree merchants with e-commerce platforms and eases the way for new payment methods enabled by Braintree, a unit of PayPal Holdings Inc. Braintree Auth currently processes payments on e-commerce platforms Bigcommerce, WooCommerce, and 3DCart. …

Cover Story By John Stewart Putting the Silk Road and Mt. Gox disasters behind it, the Bitcoin train is picking up speed. But what’s the real destination? If you want to get an idea of how far Bitcoin has come, take a look at what people are buying with it. At …

BitPay Inc., a payment processor for digital Bitcoin payments, has integrated its services with Amazon.com Inc.’s Fulfillment-by-Amazon Web service. It’s the first move into large-scale e-commerce for companies wishing to accept Bitcoin payments over the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network, Atlanta-based BitPay says. Fulfillment-by-Amazon (FBA) allows a seller with inventory in Amazon’s …