Competitive Strategies

The U.S. Marshals Service plans to auction 3,813 Bitcoins in 11 blocks Jan. 22. The agency acquired the digital currency through forfeitures in 18 federal criminal, civil, and administrative cases. Bidder registration opens today. At Thursday morning’s price of approximately $14,000 per Bitcoin, the assets are worth about $53.4 million. …

South Korea-based consumer-electronics giant LG Electronics plans to bring its LG Pay mobile-payments service to the U.S. in a few months. But with its smart phones in the hands of only 10% of American consumers, how much market share LG Pay can capture and how it can distinguish itself from …

Overall U.S holiday sales in 2017 grew 6.2% over 2016, a pace that bested 2016’s 4.7% sales-growth rate, First Data Corp. announced Wednesday in its latest SpendTrend report. Retail spending during the Oct. 28 to Jan. 1 period increased 5.4%, compared to a 3.6% growth rate in 2016. Measured at …

While most payments executives have been fascinated by the spectacular year-long rise—and recent crash—in the value of Bitcoin, merchants that accept the cryptocurrency continue to struggle with a wide range of vexing issues. Overstock.com, one of the first merchants to accept Bitcoin, this week had to fix a programming flaw …

Payment-security provider Bluefin Payment Systems announced that Choice Entertainment Technologies will offer Bluefin’s point-to-point encryption service to users of its ChoiceCRM platform for performing-arts organizations. Payments company Wirecard AG is providing services to Moonrise, a unit of American Family Insurance. Moonrise enables employers to pay shift workers using a Wirecard-issued …

After a short-lived scare, investors in the budding cannabis sector don’t seem to be rattled by the hard line being taken by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions against their industry. But the legal marijuana industry is certainly no closer to getting payment card merchant accounts and other mainstream financial services, …

First American Payment Systems LP launched 1stPayPOS Pro, a tablet-based point-of-sale system that uses an Android-powered device to accept multiple payment methods, including EMV and Apple Pay and Google Pay. Payments provider National Merchants Association said it plans to open an office in London after it obtains a payment-facilitator certification …

Say goodbye to Android Pay and Google Wallet, and say hello to Google Pay. Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit on Monday announced a rebranding of its disparate online payments services under the single moniker Google Pay. The new branding’s scope is so broad that even the function within Chrome Web browsers …

As technology firms, both within financial services and those entering it, take larger shares of banking revenue streams and become more like banks, financial institutions will beef up their tech investments as they attempt to counter this pressure, advises Aite Group LLC in a report on 2018 financial-services trends. In …

Vantiv Inc. shareholders approved the processor’s planned acquisition of London-based merchant acquirer Worldpay Group plc with 99.9% of votes cast in favor, Vantiv reported. The companies expect the merger to close Jan. 16 following approval of a British court. The merged company will be known as Worldpay Inc., and its …