The bill may look sensible on the surface. But it’s a mistake to try conjuring up competition by diktat. Since his unsuccessful efforts in 2008 and 2009 to impose price controls on merchants’ card-acceptance costs, longtime payments-industry nemesis Sen. Ricard Durbin, D-Ill., has been on a crusade to gut the …

Lightspeed Commerce, a specialist in hospitality payments, launched Retail Insights, a data service for merchants. Shift4 Payments Inc. announced it will process all ticket sales and foodservice payments at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the arena for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association. U.S.-based fintech software firm OMNIQ Corp. said …

Hospitality point-of-sale maker Toast Inc. said it now serves 120,000 merchant locations as of the end of the second quarter, a 29% increase from the same period a year ago. Its gross payment volume jumped 26% year-over-year to $40.5 billion. Toast posted second quarter revenue of $1.24 billion, a 27% increase from …

A new regulatory framework is coming to fintech. While none of the regulators has proposed a new rule yet, my prediction is that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will create a new regulation that will apply directly to fintechs. This will be done to address concerns that come from relying …

In the Visa Flexible Credential, has the payments industry found its ultimately secure identity solution? New ways to use technology, changing consumer preferences, and comfort with digital payments may all be fostering the first steps toward a digital-payment identity. But is it time for a digital-payment identity? Visa must think …

Visa Inc. is taking up the notion of a digital payment identity and making it part of its product mix. Announced Wednesday at the Visa Payments Forum in San Francisco, the Visa Flexible Credential is but one of several products the payments network formally debuted, including broader tap-to-pay capabilities, a …

Block Inc. chief executive Jack Dorsey fired back at news reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the company for alleged compliance lapses at Block’s Square and Cash App units. The reports “lack full context,” Dorsey said during Block’s quarterly earnings call late Thursday. News of the investigation …

It’s May, and that means it’s time for our annual exercise to seek out and describe the payments players, apart from the big networks, that are rewriting the rules for the digital exchange of value. Capital One Financial Corp.’s bombshell announcement in February that it is offering to acquire Discover …

Long unneeded in a credit card transaction, the signature at the point of sale still exists. Why? More than six years ago, the requirement that credit card transactions made at the point of sale be completed with a signature was lifted by the four U.S. card brands. But today, many …

Zumigo Inc., a provider of mobile-identity authentication technology, says it has enhanced its DeRiskify fraud-prevention product for e-commerce merchants by enabling sellers to authenticate customers without a password requirement when customers log into their account. Eliminating the need for passwords in the customer-verification process pleases customers, which in turn can …