Small and mid-sized businesses using Intuit Inc.’s QuickBooks accounting software and payment-processing service will be able to get funds faster through Visa Inc.’s Visa Direct service, the companies announced Wednesday. Mountain View, Calif.-based Intuit rolled out Instant Deposit for its SMB customers using QuickBooks Payments. Instant Deposit uses the Visa …

The London-based financial-services technology provider Finastra said Wednesday that it has agreed to offer blockchain technology from Ripple Labs Inc. for cross-border payments processed by its client institutions. In related news, more than 1,500 firms have inquired with the Libra Association about joining the group, the association said, in the …

Friday’s news that PayPal Holdings Inc. is bailing out of Facebook Inc.’s Libra cryptocurrency project underscores the importance of an upcoming meeting of the project’s backers in Geneva, Switzerland, observers say. It has also heightened speculation about whether the project is likely to lose more of the remaining 26 companies …

Confirming speculation that it was having second thoughts about officially joining the Libra Association, PayPal Holdings Inc. disclosed Friday afternoon that it was withdrawing from the controversial cryptocurrency project proposed by Facebook Inc. “PayPal has made the decision to forgo further participation in the Libra Association at this time and …

Adoption of mobile-payment apps in the United States has been tepid, so the so-called “Pays”—Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay—have sought new features to spike consumer interest. The latest gambit comes from Samsung Pay, which on Thursday announced an integration that will allow U.S. users to send payments to …

Investors in payment stocks experienced something in September they don’t have to suffer through very often—two straight months of negative returns. A basket of 27 transaction-processor stocks tracked by Chicago-based Barrington Research Associates Inc. posted a negative mean return of 3.89% in September, considerably worse than three major stock-market indexes. …

A report Wednesday that at least some members of the consortium backing Facebook Inc.’s Libra cryptocurrency project—including Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.—are having second thoughts has drawn fire from the top Facebook executive in charge of the project. “The tone of some of this reporting suggests angst, etc….I can tell …

The Shanghai-based UnionPay International payment network reported Monday that it now has 28 million accepting merchants outside of China and 120 million cards issued by non-mainland financial institutions since it launched its global business in 2004. But while UnionPay International now has a presence in 176 countries, with Chile and …

It faces formidable challenges, but Facebook’s cryptocurrency initiative has the potential to rewire the underpinnings of the entire payments system. Libra, a new stablecoin powered by blockchain technology from Facebook, is a bold, forward-thinking concept and a potential game-changer for blockchain and the payments realm. While it remains to be …

Facebook’s digital money could empower the underbanked, usher cryptocurrency into the mainstream, and accelerate the arrival of real-time payments. For some, that’s not good enough. In Roman times, the libra was a unit of weight roughly equivalent to 12 ounces. Ancient Rome also attached the name to a constellation that …