The numbers moved in the right direction for Square Inc. in the first quarter, with gross payment volume up 33% and profitability measures improving. But an analyst urged the merchant acquirer to disclose more data about its fast-growing but potentially volatile loan business called Square Capital. San Francisco-based Square reported Wednesday …

Mastercard Inc. reported Tuesday that it switched nearly 17% more transactions in the first quarter than it did a year earlier. Most of the growth came from overseas, but some of it resulted from more U.S. PIN-debit volume, company executives said. Purchase, N.Y.-based Mastercard said it switched 14.7 billion transactions …

The ATM EMV conversion is only partly done, and now deployers are beginning preparations for Windows 10 only a few years after upgrading to Windows 7. ATM deployers can take solace in the fact that their EMV upgrades are going faster than merchants’ conversion to chip card acceptance. But lest …

Consulting firm The Strawhecker Group is out with its 2016 rankings of U.S. merchant acquirers, and they show that 240 acquirers and independent sales organizations processed more than $5 trillion in payment volume. The 10 biggest acquirers accounted for 80% of that volume. Topping the list is JPMorgan Chase & …

Card-not-present fraud is growing as EMV chip cards make it harder for fraudsters to use counterfeit credit and debit cards at the point of sale, but perceptions about the reasons for the increase may need some clarification, according to the U.S. Payments Forum. “Some of the reports of large rises …

Whatever their personal feelings are about marijuana usage, the growth of the legal cannabis industry in many states 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 …

Data breaches are in the news constantly, but they appear to have no long-term effect on consumers’ use of payment methods. Breaches might, however, spur some consumers to switch hospitals, according to researchers. “Payment attitudes and payment behaviors are very, very sticky,” says Claire Greene, a payments analyst at the …

Retailers organized by the National Retail Federation and the Merchants Payments Coalition are scheduled to descend on Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to urge Congress to preserve the Durbin Amendment within the ever-controversial Dodd-Frank Act. One close observer of the political and banking scenes, however, believes the amendment will survive despite …

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau confirmed last week that it will extend the effective date of its planned rule governing prepaid accounts by six months, until Oct. 1, and indicated it would consider a further extension. The embattled bureau also said it would revisit “at least two substantive issues” in …

Still smarting from the loss of its big cobranded card and acceptance relationship with Costco Wholesale Corp. last June, American Express Co. managed to beat analysts’ earnings estimates in the first quarter and said it has planted the seeds for future growth. As an example, AmEx said its efforts to …