About 60% of the nation’s approximately 450,000 ATMs can now accept EMV chip cards, according to industry executives familiar with the years-long process of transitioning from magnetic-stripe cards. “We look at true chip transactions that are coming from terminals,” says Bruce Owens, vice president of product for the North American …

• Wireless payments specialist Apriva announced a new vending payment product for Canada that enables contactless payments and chip card transactions. • Point-of-sale equipment and services distributor POS Portal announced that it and processor Vantiv Inc. have simplified the equipment-distribution process for merchants, value-added resellers, and independent software vendors using the processor’s services. • Credit-union …

Financial institutions are determined not to be left behind as mobile person-to-person payments gain popularity and non-bank players invade the market. On Monday, Early Warning Services LLC, a company controlled by some of the nation’s biggest banks, said its Zelle P2P service has grown to include 20 banks and credit …

Automated clearing house volume grew by more than 1 billion transactions in 2016, ACH network governing body NACHA reported this week. Herndon, Va.-based NACHA says traffic on the network, which connects virtually all U.S. financial institutions, hit 25.6 billion transactions, up 5.3% from 2015. That grand total includes on-us transactions. …

• Merchant processor Vantiv Inc. announced it will work with data-science specialist Womply to offer Vantiv BizShield and Insights, a service for small and medium-sized merchants that offers real-time data, advanced analytics, online reputation management, and threat management. • Processor Global Payments Inc.’s Campus Solutions unit has introduced TouchNet OneCard VIP, which manages access to …

Bank card merchant acquirers participating in American Express Co.’s OptBlue program signed 1 million small businesses for AmEx acceptance last year, an AmEx executive tells Digital Transactions News. The push came as New York City-based AmEx drives toward chief executive Kenneth I. Chenault’s goal of having AmEx’s merchant base reach …

Interac, the Canadian debit network, says a record number of payments were made in 2016 using e-Transfer, its money-transfer service. Transactions totaled 158 million, up 50% from the 2015 total of 105 million. The total value of these transactions reached C$63 billion (US$47.3 billion) in 2016 with an average transaction …

• Mastercard Inc. said it will move to close its acquisition of VocaLink Holdings Ltd.“within the next few weeks” now that the transaction has been cleared by the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority. • USA Technologies Inc. said it is providing its contactless ePort Connect payment device for entertainment kiosks from Sneaker …

Payments providers have long recognized how extending credit can create consumer transactions where none would otherwise have occurred, but lately the idea of instant credit is gaining momentum. Companies like Klarna and Affirm have made a splash with on-the-spot credit for online purchases. Now, Austin, Texas-based Vyze Inc. is out to …

• Merchant processor CardConnect Corp. is paying $39 million for its previously announced acquisition of MertzCo Inc. consisting of $12 million in cash and 1.98 million shares of CardConnect stock valued at $27 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from CardConnect. • Visa Inc. has begun allowing issuers of Visa-branded commercial cards …