Amazon long ago mastered e-commerce, and now its payments unit is making moves in physical stores and in voice commerce. Will it succeed here as it has online? In the fall of 2009, a certain big company in Seattle launched a service that let consumers authenticate themselves for online purchases …

Nobody knows for sure, but some time this year Amazon.com Inc. could unleash a double-barreled assault on the world of physical-store payments. As our cover story this month lays out, the Seattle colossus has already introduced Amazon Pay Places, a mobile order-ahead application for Amazon Pay, and is working to …

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced changes to its controversial prepaid accounts rule and extended its effective date by one year, to April 2019. The changes will adjust error-resolution requirements for prepaid card providers and will make it easier for consumers to link credit card accounts to digital wallets, some …

Cardlytics Inc., which analyzed 18 billion U.S. purchases in 2016 from customers of more than 1,600 financial institutions, last week filed for an initial public offering of stock that it hopes will raise $75 million in gross proceeds to further expand its marketing platforms. Atlanta-based Cardlytics was founded in 2008 …

A bipartisan group of 18 state attorneys general sent a letter to Congress asking lawmakers to advance legislation “that would allow states that have legalized medical or relational use of marijuana to bring that commerce into the banking system.” Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, forcing many legal cannabis businesses in 29 …

Lighthouse Network, the company behind such acquiring and point-of-sale brands as Harbortouch and POSitouch, announced Monday it has purchased Shift4 Corp., a Las Vegas-based payment gateway, for an undisclosed amount. Allentown, Pa.-based Lighthouse also announced it would adopt the Shift4 name, rebranding itself as Shift4 Payments. It was only in …

A group of California small businesses won a victory Wednesday when a three-judge panel of a federal appellate court upheld their challenge to California’s ban on credit card surcharges, but a key aspect of the ruling applies only to the merchants who sued the state. Still, the ruling represents at …

Global Payments Inc. is making the transaction data its merchants generate easier for them to access and use. The Atlanta-based processor launched Heartland Analytics Monday. The service, available to U.S. merchants, is designed for small and mid-size businesses in the restaurant and hospitality industries. The service enables them to view …

Convenience-store chain Sheetz Inc. announced it is upgrading the forecourts of its more than 500 locations with EMV acceptance at the pump. The new equipment from Gilbarco Veeder-Root was jointly developed with VeriFone Systems Inc. In addition to EMV acceptance, the technology supports mobile wallets, encryption, barcode scanning, and contactless …

Some 48% of surveyed U.S. consumers don’t use Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, Venmo, or Bitcoin and 46% say not enough places accept these payment methods, according to invoicing and payments firm Viewpost, which canvassed 1,000 people. Mobile-payments provider LevelUp announced a link to delivery.com, which serves more than 12,000 restaurants. The connection …