Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Most new corporate chiefs keep a low profile for a time, perhaps tweaking their predecessors’ strategies but announcing few major changes. Not so Alex Chriss. PayPal Holdings Inc.’s new CEO, who took over Sept. 27 from long-time chief Dan Schulman, took the opportunity of his new company’s third-quarter earnings call …

Observers of the payments industry who wonder how the Federal Reserve’s proposed rate reductions for debit card acceptance might be received by the nation’s biggest processors heard an unequivocal answer early Tuesday from at least one of them.  “Any time the cost of acceptance goes down, it’s a positive for …

Two point-of-sale companies have separately taken steps to boost their competitiveness, one with an acquisition and the other in a marketing expansion. Payments platform Nayax Ltd. says it will acquire Folsom, Calif.-based Retail Pro International in a $36.5-million deal. Expected to close in the fourth quarter, the deal will expand …

European transaction processors are getting hammered by slowing economies and increased regulatory scrutiny. Shares in the big French processor Worldline slid 59% on Wednesday, followed by a feeble recovery Thursday. AppTech Payments Corp. announced it has closed on its acquisition of Alliance Partners LLC. The deal brings to AppTech FinZeo, Alliance’s money-movement software …

Mastercard Inc. posted strong third-quarter results of $6.5 billion in revenue, up 12% from $5.8 billion in the 2022 third quarter. The card giant’s net income of $3.2 billion increased 28% from $2.5 billion in the year-ago quarter. Mastercard cited cross-border payment volume growth of 21% in the quarter as one …

Ninety-nine percent of large enterprises—those with annual revenue of $1 billion to $9.9 billion—expect to send real-time payments in the next five years, found the 2023 AFP Real-Time Payments Survey released by the Association for Financial Professionals and sponsored by The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC. It also found that 77% of …

AppTech Payments Corp., a specialist in business-to-business and business-to-consumer payments, has agreed to acquire Alliance Partners LLC and its FinZeo money-movement software. With the deal, expected to close Oct. 31, AppTech will become a payment facilitator, a company that allows merchants to accept payments on the company’s merchant account. Terms …

Payments provider NMI LLC announced Thursday it has acquired the commercial division of Sphere, a cloud-based software and payments-technology company. Sphere Commercial Division primarily serves non-integrated small and mid-size businesses. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Schaumburg, Ill.-based NMI says the acquisition will strengthen its underwriting and risk-management capabilities …

Celero Commerce announced late Wednesday it has acquired Finical Holdings LLC for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition, which is the tenth Celero has made since its launch in late 2018, will increase the company’s annual card processing volume to $25 billion and enlarge its presence in the Southwestern U.S. market, …

Count one less competitor in the market for advanced point-of-sale technology at stadiums. Shift4 Payments Inc. has agreed to buy SpotOn Transact Inc.’s sports and entertainment business for $100 million in a move that beefs up Shift4’s position in the burgeoning stadium market and marks a retreat by SpotOn from …

Mastercard Inc. denies an assertion it intends to raise interchange rates in October following an Aug. 30th story in The Wall Street Journal about interchange rate adjustments expected from Mastercard and Visa Inc. in October and April. Mastercard said the article relied on a report from an advisory firm that is advocating for legislation that …

Restaurant point-of-sale provider Snack POS has agreed to offer EMV terminals from Pax. Soundhound AI Inc., a specialist in artificial intelligence, said it will work with online-ordering platform ChowNow to help restaurants answer and respond to customer calls. Payments provider Nayax Ltd. is working with loyalty-technology platform Giift to enable consumers to convert loyalty …

Add a stablecoin to the roster of PayPal Holdings Inc.’s financial and payments products. Announced Monday, the PayPal USD will begin rolling out to PayPal accountholders today and in coming weeks. A stablecoin is a form of cryptocurrency pegged to a reserve asset viewed as stable, such as gold or …

The top brass at fast-growing payments processor Shift4 Payments Inc. indicated early Thursday the company is banking on sophisticated platforms like its SkyTab point-of-sale system in the face of rivals’ efforts to hit hotels and restaurants with additional fees. The Allentown, Pa.-based company is also looking to expansion in Europe …

Checkout provider Skipify said its technology is launching exclusively with American Express Co. to enable select cardholders to link to eligible AmEx cards to checkout with participating merchants. The integration means consumers will not need to manually enter their payment and billing details, which could help with merchant approval and conversion rates, …

Music-technology provider SoundExchange announced it is adding PayPal and Venmo as options for royalty payments to registered creators. The two payments channels join CashApp and Zelle as payout options on the platform. Tulip, a point-of-sale technology provider for retailers, said it will incorporate payments services from Stripe Inc. Dollar General announced DG Cash …

Services such as buy now, pay later loans and personal financial management will help drive the global volume of digital-wallet transactions to $16 trillion in 2028, up 77% from $9 trillion this year, according to a report from Juniper Research. Katapult Holdings Inc. said more than 20 merchants are now available on …

Merchant Lynx Services has acquired National Credit Card Processing Group, a provider of B2B payment solutions, for an undisclosed sum. National Card Processing specializes in payment acceptance for the construction and heavy-duty trucking parts and repairs, concrete ready mix, asphalt and aggregate supply, and highway civil construction industries. The acquisition …

In a fleeting 10-minute conference call, FIS Inc. announced early Thursday a move to sell a 55% interest in its merchant-processing business, which principally consists of the Worldpay unit it acquired four years ago, to the private-equity firm GTCR. The deal is expected to close by the end of the …

Travel-technology provider Sabre Corp. announced it has acquired Techsembly, a gift card and e-commerce platform for hotels. The U.S. Payments Forum published a white paper outlining the impact of the Federal Reserve’s clarification that debit card issuers must enable a choice of two unaffiliated networks for all transactions, including card-not-present payments. The clarification took effect …