Mastercard Inc. announced contactless-payment capability will go live in 20 U.S. cities “within the next few years,” starting with subway and bus systems later this year in New York City, where the company is working with transit-technology firm Cubic Transportation Systems. Bitmo, a startup that offers mobile gift cards that …

Avnet Inc., a technology supplier for industries as diverse as automotive, communications, energy, and wearables, quickly has found that accepting Bitcoin via BitPay Inc. is a hit, especially with the Bitcoin mining industry. Atlanta-based BitPay announced this week that Phoenix-based Avnet uses it for Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash transactions. With …

The Trump administration is considering sanctions that would ban Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., and financial institutions from handling transactions in Venezuela, according to Reuters. The move would be aimed at restricting the ability of the Venezuelan government, headed by embattled president Nicolas Maduro, to access funds. IBM Corp. may be …

Merchant acquirer EVO Payments Inc. processed 821.6 million transactions in 2018’s fourth quarter, up 16% from 705.5 million a year earlier. European transactions grew 22% to 575.1 million while North American transactions rose 5% to 246.5 million. Fourth-quarter revenues increased 9% year-over-year to $150.8 million; the company posted a net …

Mastercard Inc. has called a halt to its bidding war with Visa Inc. over cross-border business-to-business payments processor Earthport PLC and instead plans to acquire another company in the space, Transfast Remittance LLC. Mastercard announced a tentative deal to buy New York City-based money-transfer provider Transfast Friday. Transfast is a …

Mastercard Inc. has abandoned its pursuit of cross-border specialist Earthport PLC and instead has agreed to acquire New York City-based Transfast Remittance LLC, a cross-border account-to-account money-transfer network. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in 2019’s second half, were not disclosed. Visa Inc. last month made an …

Its $22-billion megamerger agreement with First Data sets it up to be a dominant player on both the bank and merchant sides of payments. How will the industry react? Executives at Fiserv Inc. all but popped champagne corks on Feb. 7 when they spoke to industry analysts about the Brookfield, …

ACI Worldwide has agreed to lay out $750 million in cash to buy Speedpay Inc., the digital bill-payment business that has been part of The Western Union Co. for 17 years. The deal, announced early Thursday, will bulk up ACI’s bill-payment processing business at a time when trends like digital …

NCR Corp. announced it acquired BEC, said to be a leading provider in Colorado of point-of-sale technology for the hospitality industry. BEC, which accounts for 2,600 sites, has been an NCR reseller for 23 years. Terms were not announced. After years of unsuccessful attempts to win government approval to operate …

Payments provider North American Bancard Holdings LLC said it is integrating its capabilities with retail-management and point-of-sale software provider Vend. The joint service will be available to retailers through NAB’s resellers. Digital Debit Group, a unit of Qondado LLC, released a Quick Response code-based app for iOS and Android devices …