Most components of First Data Corp.’s massive merchant-acquiring machine performed well in the third quarter, and the company renewed its acquiring contract with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer. But new merchant referrals from First Data’s joint ventures with three big U.S. banks remain problematic. “These businesses have remained …

Consumer use of mobile payments has taken a step back, according to new research from Auriemma Consulting Group. The New York City-based firm found that mobile-payments usage is down 5 percentage points to 25% of consumers surveyed from 30% a year ago. And that decline is expected to continue into …

The Western Union Co. this week positioned itself to fend off competition from peer-to-peer payment services by partnering with Mastercard Inc. to integrate Mastercard Send into its money-transfer service. The service, which is expected to be available in only the United States starting in early 2018, will allow consumers to …

Contactless payments got a big boost Wednesday when the New York City area’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a $539.5 million contract with San Diego-based Cubic Transportation Systems to install a near-field communication-based payment system across all MTA transit and commuter-rail systems that includes open-loop payments. The deal means MTA riders …

The PCI Security Standards Council is without a general manager as the organization that establishes electronic-payments security standards prepares to go in a new direction with its leadership. Out is Stephen W. Orfei, who joined the council in 2014 as general manager and replaced Bob Russo, the council’s original G.M. …

Almost as many merchants—65%—seek to increase transaction volumes by reducing identity verification thresholds as do those—74%—that try to reduce fraudulent transactions through more effective verification methods. That quandary surfaced in the “Lost in Transaction Vol. II” report released Thursday by Paysafe Group plc. With a focus on fraud, including consumer …

The Clearing House, a major player in U.S. payments, is getting deeper into the tokenization business through a new pact with Mastercard Inc. New York City-based The Clearing House and Mastercard announced Thursday that TCH has become a Mastercard-certified third-party Token Service Provider (TSP). As such, TCH will be able …

With Venmo accounting for a swiftly growing share of PayPal’s total payment volume, the company’s top brass left no doubt on Thursday they are eager to start making the peer-to-peer payment service start paying its way. “We [now] begin to monetize Venmo,” PayPal chief executive Dan Schulman told equity analysts …

Mastercard Inc. is doing away with a rule requiring merchants to get signatures for transactions made with its credit and debit cards in the United States and Canada. Announced early Thursday, Mastercard’s rule change goes into effect April 13, 2018, allowing issuers, merchants, and processors time to make adjustments, though …

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is making a big move into the world of independent software vendors and payment facilitators with a planned acquisition of WePay Inc. that the nation’s largest bank announced late Tuesday. Redwood City, Calif.-based WePay develops payments-related application programming interfaces (APIs) for software developers to put into …