Black Friday through Cyber Monday shopping generated a 10% rise year-over-year for Block Inc.’s Square, Cash App, and Afterpay payments properties, to 124 million transactions, the company reported. Payments processor Nuvei Corp. announced it is expanding a partnership with Microsoft Corp. to enable its core payment processing APIs to run on Microsoft Axure and use Azure AI to …

Klarna AB said its U.S. processing volume across all product categories was up a record 45% for November through Black Friday. Absolute figures were not immediately available. Black Friday sales data from Accertify Inc. indicate consumers spent $115.46 per transaction on average, down 17% from last year, while initiating 52.5 million transactions, up …

Fraud and scams have grown into a “pressing concern” for users of digital payments in the Caribbean and Latin America, according to a regional survey report released by Mastercard Inc. The research effort queried 3,577 adults in 12 countries in October. Mastercard has launched Mastercard Access Pass, aimed at allowing card issuers to …

PayPal Holdings Inc. said PayPal merchants are now discoverable within the Perplexity AI service, which enables consumers to checkout in chat using their PayPal accounts. PayPal announced the partnership in May. SoundHound AI Inc. said its partnership with parking services provider Parkopedia now includes an in-vehicle voice AI parking agent. The agent can suggest …

Bluwhale AI Inc. has launched its AI Stablecoin Agent, aimed at helping individuals automate their management of dollar-denominated digital-currency assets. American Express Co. announced it is working with the International Downtown Association to award more than $1.4 million in grants to 97 small and independently owned restaurants in 14 cities outside the …

Cryptocurrency-technology platform MoonPay Inc. said it will support payments by users via cards, bank transfers, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, or Venmo to fund their Zengo Wallet, a cryptowallet said to be used by more than 2 million persons and businesses in more than 180 countries. Tai Software, which develops automation technology …

President Trump nominated Stuart Levenbach to be the new permanent director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Levenbach is a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget. Acting director Russell Vought’s term is set to expire in December under the Vacancies Act.  Toast Inc. said it will grant $10,000 to …

PayPal Holdings Inc. said it is an official digital payments partner with U.K.-based soccer club Liverpool FC. Already an option in the club’s digital payments platforms, PayPal will be featured more prominently on checkout and payment screens in the club’s e-commerce and All Red services. All Red is a membership program …

Nacha, the automated clearing house rule maker, is soliciting feedback on potentially increasing the transaction size of a same-day ACH payment from $1 million to $10 million. Comments are being accepted through Dec. 18. Steamboat Capital sent an open letter to the directors of Priority Technology Holdings Inc. expressing disappointment in an …

Amscot Financial said it will work with Green Dot Corp. to offer demand-deposit accounts offering a secured credit card, a network of more than 25,000 ATMs, and other features. Banker Washington Trust Co. said it added Fiserv Inc.’s Clover point-of-sale system to its roster of products available to its business clients. ECI Software Solutions launched …