Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Global Airlines, which launched this year and expects its first flight in 2024, announced it is accepting American Express for ticket bookings. The big China-based mobile-payments provider Alipay said its Alipay+ service, which includes marketing support, launched its Premier Partner Program globally with enrollment so far by 30 Asian retailers. Specialty-insurance carrier Blitz Insurance …

The big payments processor Fiserv Inc. is partnering with Amazon.com Inc. to enable credit and debit card holders enrolled in Fiserv’s uChoose rewards program to redeem points on Amazon.com. Cardholders enrolled in uChoose and the Amazon Shop with Points program can redeem rewards for all or part of their purchases …

F.N.B. Corp., with its First National Bank unit, agreed to be the sole provider of ATMs for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, said to be the third-largest U.S. rail system. The push-payments platform Checkbook announced an integration with the peer-to-peer payments provider Zelle to enable instant payments for Checkbook users. Transact Campus, a …

Shift4 Payments Inc. said early Thursday it will pay restaurants a dollar for every online order they receive across the first three months that they use the company’s SkyTab POS system. Shift4 contends it is making the move in response to what it calls junk fees charged by other payment …

Payments-technology provider Aevi said it is working with contactless-technology firm Bleu to offer tap-to-pay functionality in North America and Europe on both Android and iPhone devices. Cross River Bank said it will enable an expanded menu of payment options through open-banking platform Plaid, including instant transfers for payroll and other applications. Payments provider Lightspeed …

The merchant-acquiring business helped deliver a strong quarter for Fiserv Inc. as the big processor reported Wednesday its ninth consecutive period of organic revenue growth, or growth stemming from existing rather than recently acquired businesses. The Brookfield, Wis.-based company singled out its Clover point-of-sale technology for special mention as a …

Payments provider Euronet Worldwide Inc. said its money-transfer segment handled 41.1 million transactions in the second quarter, up 10% from 37.3 million a year earlier. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks, assessed a $15 million civil fine against American Express Co.’s American Express National …

Visa Inc.’s top brass, during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call Tuesday afternoon, preferred to talk about fast-growing newer lines of business such as value-added services and transaction sources apart from traditional plastic credit and debit cards. But stock analysts on the call had questions about some sensitive merchant-relations issues, …

The latest battle in the war over the proposed Credit Card Competition Act has focused on the question whether the legislation would cut rewards and other benefits for cardholders. Citing research from the consulting firm CMSPI, the Merchants Payments Coalition, a lobbying group for sellers, argues that passage of the …

Six years after its launch, the RTP Network surpassed 500 million real-time payments on Saturday, network operator The Clearing House Payments Co. reported Monday. The announcement at least temporarily shines the spotlight back onto the current leader in real-time payments in the wake of last week’s much-anticipated launch of the …

Mastercard Inc. launched Mastercard Receivables Manager, aimed at streamlining the process businesses use to accept and process transactions on virtual cards. The 20-year-old billing platform eLabs announced it has rebranded itself as Vizibill. The Bitcoin ATM network Bitcoin Depot Inc. reported it expects second-quarter revenue to total between $196 million and $198 million, up …

Independent sales organizations can’t do much without a sponsor bank, also known as an acquiring bank, to get them access to the payment card networks. As with most business endeavors, the complexity of finding a sponsor bank has increased. It’s a challenge that attendees at the 2023 Midwest Acquirers Association …

Discover Financial Services late Wednesday reported net income of $901 million for the second quarter of 2023, down 18% from a year earlier. Credit card loans for the quarter totaled $94 billion, a 19% year-over-year increase. As part of its earnings statement, Discover stated that “the comparative prior quarter ended …

The Federal Reserve’s instant-payment service, FedNow, is officially live with 35 banks and credit unions participating, the nation’s banking regulator announced early Thursday. The launch, which culminates four years of work since the Fed first announced its intention to build a real-time payments rail, comes as the payments industry moves …

Relay Payments, a payments platform for the trucking industry, announced an integration with McLeod Software, a vendor of management software for the same industry. ACI Worldwide Inc. introduced an acquiring-as-a-service platform in collaboration with Dock, a Brazil-based technology company. The product is aimed at retailers, restaurants, and e-commerce businesses. Consumer attitudes …

The Federal Reserve could launch its FedNow real-time payments service as early as tomorrow, sources tell Digital Transactions News. The network, which has been under development for nearly four years, represents the regulator’s first effort to create a nationwide network for instant payments, a service that other countries, and at …

Risk-management technology provider Feedzai has harnessed artificial intelligence with the introduction of Railgun, its latest fraud-detection engine. What differentiates Railgun, according to Feedzai, is that it taps real-time data such as customer behavior patterns and the use of specific cards across merchant networks over longer periods of time. As a …

Two payments companies are tapping into consumers’ affinity for texting—more than 6 billion SMS text messages are sent daily, according to The Small Business Blog—with a bill-pay service and a program for merchants. First, Detroit-based Diversified Data Processing & Consulting Inc., known as DivDat, added a text-to-pay  feature to its …

Keyo, a provider of digital-identity technology, released its Keyo Wave+ hand scanner for payments, access control, ticketing, and other uses. Visa Inc. has renewed an agreement to be the exclusive payment-services provider for the U.S. Women’s and Men’s National Soccer Teams. Buy now, pay later provider Afterpay Ltd. said it has added “thousands” of new …

From ordering and payments to reward redemption consumers want a simpler shopping experience, according to research from Fiserv Inc. To meet demand, merchants and restaurants should provide more omnichannel experiences, retailer apps, and embedded payment options that add value. Buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) is one way merchants …