For the China-based Alipay payments service, pursuing niche merchant markets in North America no longer is good enough. “When we’re looking at partners, we’re looking for ubiquity,” says Souheil Badran, president of Alipay North America. Those partners so far include First Data Corp., which in May opened its huge U.S. …

The connection between computing capacity and payment practice is obvious to all. While passing coins hand-to-hand remains a ritual, the bulk of human transactions are carried out through electronic computing. Now, all the computers that we know—mainframes, minis, PCs, tablets, smart phones, and so on—are a special case of a …

A survey for megabank Bank of America Corp. indicates that consumers of all ages are ready to embrace electronic person-to-person payments. BofA’s latest Trends in Consumer Mobility Report, released last month, found that 36% of all respondents use a P2P payments service. Market-research firm Convergys queried for the bank 1,005 …

The growth of the legal cannabis industry will force bankers and payments executives to examine the business prospects of serving that industry, according to an executive with a regional automated clearing house association. While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, 29 states have approved for it for use by adults …

• Marking an end to American Express Co.’s cobranded card losing streak, hotel chain Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. named AmEx as its exclusive credit card issuer effective Jan. 1, according to Bloomberg. AmEx and Citigroup Inc., which took over issuance of the Costco Wholesale Corp. cobranded card from AmEx a year …

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/dt/201706/

By Jim Daly and John Stewart The U.S. conversion to EMV is close to two years old now, and in its wake have come unquestioned benefits. But this cure for widespread counterfeit card fraud also has ushered in excruciating side effects. It’s easy to forget that the Europay-Mastercard-Visa chip card …

By Kevin Woodward A willingness to listen, knowledge of the industry and of the merchant, and preparation are key to skirting a merchant’s rebuff reflex. It’s a universal sales-agent experience. The rebuff, deflection, or outright rejection from a merchant who, in her mind, is yet again hearing a sales rep …

• POS Portal Inc., a point-of-sale equipment distributor, said it is now supplying payment equipment via Retail Realm, a POS software distributor. • Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. said it is providing payment technology for Hyundai Motor UK’s “Click To Buy” platform, which lets consumers buy a car online from any participating …

• PayRange Inc., which specializes in mobile payments for vending machines, has extended its service to coin-operated laundry machines. The service is available for Speed Queen and Maytag machines, with other makes to come, the company said. • Quick-serve restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. updated consumers about a breach of its point-of-sale system …