Mastercard Inc.’s latest SpendingPulse report says year-over-year holiday sales increased 4.9%, their best showing since 2011. Online sales grew 18.1%. The report for the Nov. 1-Dec. 24 period covers all payment types, including cash and checks. Without being more specific, Amazon.com Inc. said “millions” of members of Amazon Prime shopped …

Boosted by e-commerce sales, growth in credit card payments far outpaced growth in debit card and automated clearing house payments in 2016, according to newly released findings from the Federal Reserve. Credit card transactions grew 10.2% from 2015’s levels to 37.3 billion and were valued at $3.27 trillion, the Fed …

The blockchain, mobile commerce, fraud, data breaches, and authentication were all hot payments topics in 2017. Expect that to continue into 2018 if the prognostications from several payments executives hold true. Much of their outlook centers on identity and authentication, especially as data breaches, large and small, continue to wreak …

Subscription-management platform provider Recurly Inc. reported Thursday that it will use international multi-channel payments provider Adyen to further expand its business abroad. Founded in 2010, San Francisco-based Recurly already operates in 32 countries. Its customers are businesses that use recurring-revenue models, including media and publishing firms, software-as-a-service providers, and others. …

The seemingly unending growth in online shopping is doing more than closing physical stores. The point of sale in the stores that remain is changing, and along with it, payments providers, says Javelin Strategy & Research in its “2017-2021 Retail Point of Sale Payment Forecast.” As consumers continue to increase …

The evolution of ATMs away from strictly card-based usage and toward mobile devices advanced Thursday when Fort Lee, N.J.-based Cross River Bank reported that it is the first bank to offer Mastercard Inc.’s Cash Pick-Up service. The service, which Mastercard announced in September, enables so-called underbanked or unbanked consumers to …

Credit and debit card fraud at the point of sale is declining precipitously two years after the payment card networks’ EMV chip card liability shifts took effect, but identity, online, and so-called fallback fraud all have risen, according to an analysis of card issuers’ experiences from Auriemma Consulting Group. New …

Digital versions are steadily increasing their share of the gift card market. Could they breathe new life into mobile wallets? If the standard knock on gift cards is that they’re too easy, too quick, too thoughtless with respect to the recipient, then the same could go double for digital cards. …

Mastercard’s decision to remove the  signature requirement comes as authentication  measures improve in the payments industry.  But what comes next is still a huge question. As unique as signatures are, their value as a way of authenticating a credit or debit card transaction has long passed, a realization many consumers …

It’s been a busy year on the M&A front for merchant acquirers. What’s driving the deals, and what’s ahead in 2018? The year is coming to a close with nearly $14 billion in mergers and acquisitions either announced or completed in the merchant-acquiring industry. The number of deals could easily …