Just over 6 billion payment cards now bear the UnionPay logo, and in 2016 the Chinese network accounted for 43% of all general-purpose credit and debit cards in the world, up from 41% in 2015, according to new findings from London-based Retail Banking Research. RBR estimates the worldwide payment card …

• Technavio, a London-based technology-research firm, forecasts the global market for mobile card readers will grow at a 54% compound annual rate between 2017 and 2021. •  InterContinental Hotels Group, parent company of more than 5,000 hotels worldwide including Holiday Inn, says it is investigating claims of a possible credit card data breach at some …

Payments provider North American Bancard Holdings LLC said it completed its acquisition of Total Merchant Services Inc. The combined company now processes nearly $50 billion in payments annually. FitPay Inc., a provider of payment-authentication technology, said it will offer prepaid capability on contactless-enabled wearable devices through a FitPay prepaid Mastercard. The program will allow …

Mobile-wallet transactions in the United States grew 333% from 2012 through 2015, albeit on a relatively small base, according to data released Friday by the Federal Reserve. Wallets generated 1.3 billion payments in 2015, the Fed data show, versus 300 million transactions three years earlier. That robust rate of growth …

As Independence Day nears with all its festivities, fireworks stores are preparing for their largest selling season of the year with EMV chip card acceptance. It evoked a sigh of relief from Bill Weimer, vice president and general counsel of Phantom Fireworks, when the company’s point-of-sale system achieved EMV compliance. …

Cardless cash access at ATMs is expanding. ATM operator Cardtronics plc, which owns or operates more than 233,000 ATMs globally, is adding FIS Cardless Cash access to its U.S. machines, Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) announced Thursday. Launched in 2015, FIS Cardless Cash enables consumers to stage cash withdrawals using …

By Peter Lucas @DTPaymentNews With the launch of its Prime Reload rewards service, Amazon.com Inc. has positioned itself to deal a serious blow to bank card issuers’ revenues earned from interchange on Amazon.com purchases, and limit the visibility banks have into their cardholders’ behavior on the e-commerce giant’s Web site. …

• Cavendish Asset Management, the biggest investor in mobile-banking and payments technology provider Monitise plc, said it will vote against the planned buyout of Monitise by Fiserv Inc. because the U.S. financial-institution processor’s $89 million offer is too low, Reuters reported. • Fair Issac Corp. (FICO) released the FICO Card Compromise Manager, a service …

The U.S. conversion to EMV chip card payments took a step forward Thursday when fuel-pump maker Gilbarco Veeder-Root announced what it says is the first EMV chip card transaction from a fuel dispenser. The transaction took place at a 49 Fuels gas station in Burlington, N.C., at an undisclosed time. …

Payment card networks have for years eyed the broad market for small-business payments, which are still largely executed with paper checks. On Thursday, Mastercard Inc. and payables-automation company AvidXchange Inc. said they will attack that paper mountain with The Mastercard B2B Hub, which will be distributed to small- and mid-size …