Digital-money technology is irresistible, and its impact is going to be much more profound than we can imagine. Money—an entity of transactable value formed by faith, not by per se value— may be seen as the mother of all inventions. It allows inventors to invent rather than get bogged down …

Agents that sell card acceptance aren’t powerless when merchants gripe about the cost. Merchant discontent over card-acceptance fees is nothing new, but every few years the din rises several octaves, just as it has in 2023. While merchants, card issuers, the card networks, and politicians argue over whether acceptance costs …

The jury is out—and will remain so for some time—on the Credit Card Competition Act and its chances of becoming the law of the land. One of the bill’s sponsors—and probably its prime mover—is Sen. Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and on the debit card side of the payments business, …

These apps are becoming more popular and encompassing more and more sensitive data—which is exactly why they’re attracting cyberthieves. In today’s highly competitive market, brands are tasked with providing a seamless, integrated, and convenient user-app experience to attract users. With the limited space on smart phone home screens, companies have …

The payments-technology provider Dwolla Inc. has integrated its Dwolla Connect platform for account-to-account payments in open finance. The integration will enable Dwolla Connect clients to transfer open-finance data to the Dwolla platform, the company says. As a result, financial institutions and third-party open-banking providers, such as Plaid Inc. and MX …

Observers of the payments industry who wonder how the Federal Reserve’s proposed rate reductions for debit card acceptance might be received by the nation’s biggest processors heard an unequivocal answer early Tuesday from at least one of them.  “Any time the cost of acceptance goes down, it’s a positive for …

By Tom Byrnes, SVP, Marketing, PayiQ After a sale is closed, the key to success is quickly assessing and onboarding the new merchant and processing them. Initiating processing is the lifeblood of every payments business, but what should be a routine, standardized process is frequently anything but smooth with most …

Two point-of-sale companies have separately taken steps to boost their competitiveness, one with an acquisition and the other in a marketing expansion. Payments platform Nayax Ltd. says it will acquire Folsom, Calif.-based Retail Pro International in a $36.5-million deal. Expected to close in the fourth quarter, the deal will expand …

Lyric.ai, a provider of artificial intelligence-based payment accuracy solutions for healthcare payers, has partnered with Codoxo, an AI-based cost-containment platform provider, to improve payment accuracy processes for health-plan payers. Lyric will offer Codoxo’s ClaimPilot, Audit Scope, Payment Scope, Provider Scope, and Fraud Scope applications to its customers via LyricIQ, its …

Like a thunderclap, on Oct. 25 the stock price of continental Europe’s biggest payment processor, Worldline, plummeted 59%. It’s down a whopping 88% from its high in April 2021. Macroeconomic conditions are to blame, but so are Worldline-specific factors. The reign of easy money is over. Easy money inflates valuations. …