Capping an eventful week for cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is now trading above $11,000 for the first time in three weeks. Even more important, the fees its users must pay when they spend Bitcoin—which had soared into the stratosphere in recent months— have crashed back to earth, according to data available Monday …

Some 61% of consumers surveyed in the fourth quarter by New York City-based Auriemma Consulting Group cited a debit card as their most frequently used card, up from 52% a year earlier. Only 24% named a credit card, down from 35% at the end of 2016. “Based on our consumer …

The efforts of 18 U.S. senators to persuade the Senate Appropriations Committee to honor state laws for legal cannabis are not expected to sway Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. to drop their prohibitions on marijuana-related purchases over their networks. Earlier this week, a group spearheaded by Sens. Michael Bennett (D) …

While the U.S. Department of Justice’s Operation Choke Point initiative ended last year, over-zealous efforts by other federal agencies threaten law-abiding payments companies in the same way Choke Point did, the chief executive of the Electronic Transactions Association warned Congress on Thursday. Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on …

A July 1 PCI Security Standards Council deadline is prompting payments providers to act well before then, with many establishing their own compliance deadlines in February. What has provoked this eagerness? It could be that noncompliance with the PCI mandate could halt merchant transactions that rely on the Internet. The …

Criminals target signature-based debit cards for fraud attempts far more than any other payment method, according to new findings from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Fed’s survey last summer, which garnered responses from 283 banks and credit unions across the country, found that more than 90% of …

ProPay, a unit of Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), announced the debut of the ProPay Payment Network Wednesday. The service targets software-as-a-service providers and aims to make it easier for them to make payments among merchants, marketplaces, affiliates, consultants, and partners. TSYS says it does that through a single point …

In an effort to streamline operations, Interac Association, Canada’s nationwide debit network, and its corporate cousin Acxsys Corp. have reorganized into a single entity known as Interac Corp., the company announced Monday. “This is an important milestone for Interac and a critical step in our continued success as one of …

The electronic funds transfer networks continue to diversify their services as competition for merchant and issuer business in debit payments intensifies. The latest example comes from processor Fiserv Inc.’s Accel network, which says Walmart Inc. is using its service for signature-based debit card transactions. Walmart typically prompts customers paying with …

Curiosity, and a bit of confusion, about what constitutes credit card surcharging and cash-discount programs surfaced this week at the Northeast Acquirers Association annual conference in Uncasville, Conn. During a panel discussion about the benefits and challenges of credit card surcharging and cash-discount programs for merchants, participants explained how their …