The Covid-19 pandemic was a strong tailwind for the adoption of contactless payments. Two years later, the momentum is still there but challenges remain. Whether it’s the convenience of not dipping a card into a POS terminal or speedier transactions at the point-of-sale, consumers and merchants continue to embrace contactless …

The payments industry has forged a symbiotic relationship with cloud computing. That isn’t likely to be swept away any time soon. More than two years ago, Global Payments Inc. took a big leap into marrying cloud computing with payments. The big payment processor signed an agreement with Amazon.com Inc. to …

Varo Bank early Tuesday announced it has become the first digital neobank to be admitted to the Zelle peer-to-peer payments network. The bank, a unit of the 7-year-old, San Francisco-based Varo Money Inc., said it will now offer payments via Zelle through its mobile app. “Adding Zelle to our product …

California grocer Ralphs has begun accepting Apple Pay in its 184 locations in the state, reported MacRumors.com, citing a company spokesperson. Ralphs is part of the Kroger Co., which Digital Transactions News reported in 2020 was testing contactless payments at some of its locations. Kroger launched its proprietary mobile-payments service Kroger Pay in 2019, but has …

Thomas Warsop is taking over as chief executive of payments-technology provider ACI Worldwide Inc., succeeding Odilon Almeida, who is stepping down after serving in that role since March 2020. Warsop formerly was non-executive chair of the board of directors and is being succeeded in that role by board member Adalio Sanchez. Dow …

Acquirers are trying to disentangle the many implications of the proposed Credit Card Competition Act. Some doubt the bill’s impact would be good. This road has been traveled before. This time, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) wants to place restrictions on credit card practices, specifically transaction-routing practices. As Digital Transactions …

The payments business has moved on from the pandemic, but it faces a host of other issues. Here’s our annual catalog of the ones causing the most headaches. Welcome to Digital Transactions’ annual catalog of headaches—the problems, pitfalls, and perils facing the business of processing digital payments. We review these …

Pressure from the Senate Banking Committee on Early Warning Systems LLC, operator of the Zelle peer-to-peer payment network, is rising as committee members continue to press Early Warning for information about the extent of fraud on the network. A report released by Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office late Monday charges that …

The Federal Reserve said late Monday it has completed work on a clarification that reinforces a more than decade-old requirement that issuers enable a choice of at least two competing networks for online debit card transactions. The release follows months of research and investigation by the Fed and will go …

More merchants have begun accepting cryptocurrency, and processors say there’s others to come. Good luck with that, say skeptics. A dozen years after the emergence of Bitcoin, widespread merchant acceptance of digital currency remains more a vision than a reality. Most merchants that do accept cryptocurrency insist on converting it …