The independent sales organization business is one that has spawned multimillion-dollar fortunes for numerous entrepreneurs. But perhaps it’s time for the industry to begin thinking beyond pure profit, merchant-acquiring executives suggested Thursday. The executives participated in a panel dubbed “Payments Doing Good” at the MidWest Acquirers Association annual conference in …

The Pulse debit network, Diners Club International, and the network partners of Discover Financial Services collectively generated $57.3 billion in second-quarter volume, a 14% increase from a year earlier, Discover reported Thursday. Pulse, the biggest of the three units in Discover’s Payment Services segment, posted $44.3 billion in volume, up …

Mastercard Inc. posted a 33% increase in second-quarter profit as its worldwide purchase volumes rose nearly 16% and U.S. volume grew 10.5%. New business wins, including cobranded cards, and more customers for existing products drove the higher numbers. “We continue to make excellent progress with cobrands,” Mastercard chief executive Ajay …

With economic conditions generally healthy in most of the world, Visa Inc. racked up $2.1 trillion in combined credit and debit payment volume in the quarter ended June 30, an 11.1% increase from $1.87 trillion a year earlier on a constant-currency basis.  The United States, by far the largest of …

Payment processor Worldpay Inc. said Tuesday that it is testing what it calls Drone Pay, a payment system for drone-based package deliveries. “Worldpay’s Drone Pay proof of concept uses EMV contactless payment card technology to verify the identity of the recipient, ensuring a parcel is delivered to the right person …

The impending demise of Snap Inc.’s Snapcash service comes at a time when peer-to-peer payment services are growing rapidly, but many consumers still remain hesitant to use them. Some of these consumers are confused about pricing, new findings from Fiserv Inc. suggest. Fiserv, a Brookfield, Wis.-based financial-institution processor, on Monday …

The crowded peer-to-peer payments market will soon become a little less crowded with the impending demise of Snap Inc.’s Snapcash service. Snapcash, which runs on Square Inc.’s P2P payments technology, will end Aug. 30, according to TechCrunch. The Silicon Valley news service said over the weekend that it discovered a …

Global investment in blockchain technology will double this year compared to 2017, reaching $1.5 billion, according to a new report from International Data Corp. Investment will increase over the next five years at an annual rate of 73.2%, Framingham, Mass.-based IDC forecasts, reaching $11.7 billion in 2022. “Enthusiasm for blockchain …

Fresh from its victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, American Express Co. on Wednesday said card-billed business in the more mature U.S. market and its international markets both grew by 10% in the second quarter. New York City-based AmEx reported a total of $296.5 billion in card-billed business versus $269.6 …

U.S. Bancorp’s Payment Services unit posted a 28% gain in net income in the second quarter, in part due to higher merchant-processing volumes. The unit, one of five major divisions at the Minneapolis-based super-regional bank, produced a $361 million profit versus $282 million a year earlier, or 21% of the …