Saturday , May 9, 2026

Kevin Woodward

Kevin's role at Digital Transactions is to write news and features stories for publication on the Web site and in the magazine. He also oversees the digital editorial aspect of the site and the Digital Transactions News daily newsletter.

Eye on POS: Square Counts 140 ISO Partners; Toast Locations Increase 22%

Competition among point-of-sale system providers shows no signs of weakening among two top companies. Square, the acquiring arm of Block Inc., reported a 13% increase in its payment volume for the first quarter, while competitor Toast Inc. says its gross payment volume rose 22% year-over-year. Square’s first-quarter performance comes on …

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Colorado Advances a Measure to Eliminate Interchange Fees on Sales Tax

A Colorado bill that would eliminate sales tax as part of the interchange fee calculation has moved to Gov. Jared Polis’s desk for review following passage Wednesday in the Colorado House. It passed a state Senate vote last week. Similar in some ways to the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, …

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Clover Remains a Bright Spot for Fiserv

One Fiserv Inc. business stood out in the processor’s first-quarter earnings. Clover, its point-of-sale system and services unit, saw a 12% increase in its gross payment volume from the same quarter in 2025. That is despite a 9% decrease in Clover’s first-quarter revenue from lower hardware and data and analytics …

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The AI Upload: Verifone Adapts AI for Fuel and C-Store Merchants; SoundHound AI Debuts an Agentic Platform

It’s heady days for payments and artificial intelligence applications as payments companies prepare for expected growth in AI-assisted commerce. This extends beyond online shopping with Verifone Inc.’s incorporation of AI into Commander, its point-of-sale system for fuel retailers and convenience-store operators. New York City-based Verifone says AI utilities are part …

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April Small Business Sales up 1.1%, Fiserv Says

Small business sales, as tracked in the Fiserv Small Business index, were up 1.1% year-over-year in April, buoyed in part by a 2.8% increase in higher average tickets, finds the latest edition of the index. Released Monday, the index found the April increase in the average ticket was the highest …

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Eye on Agentic Commerce: Experian’s Tool for Verifying Consumer, Agent Link; Kite’s Wallet Service for AI Agents

As payments companies, merchants, and consumers prepare for the growing use of artificial-intelligence agents in commerce, vendors, too, are getting ready for these independent, digital agents. Among the latest is Experian plc, best known as a credit-reporting agency, with its new Experian Agent Trust service and Kite AI with its …

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Three Months In, the New PayPal CEO Sparks a Sweeping Reorganization

Barely three months since taking over the top spot at PayPal Holdings Inc., Enrique Lores is heading up a reorganization of the venerable payments company. Announced late Wednesday following a CNBC report earlier in the day, PayPal says it will migrate to a three-business operating model. The three are checkout …

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Eye on Point of Sale: MoneyGram Adopts Stripe for Retail Locations; Lightspeed Divests Upserve

Stripe Inc. has notched money-transfer services as a customer category with MoneyGram’s adoption of the payment processor’s technology for its retail locations. Additionally, Lightspeed Commerce Inc. is selling Upserve, a hospitality point-of-sale platform it acquired in 2020. Dallas-based MoneyGram International Inc., which went private in 2023, says it will use …

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A $10 Million Same-Day ACH Limit Could Be a B2B and Treasury Boon

Already a key growth area for same-day automated clearing house transactions, business-to-business and corporate-treasury payments could be set up for even more growth with Monday’s announcement of a new $10-million transaction cap set to take effect Sept. 17. Announced by Nacha, the ACH rulemaking body, the new cap is 10 times greater …

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Many Consumers Say ‘No Thanks’ to Agent-Based Payments

It’s still early days for agentic commerce, in which artificial-intelligence agents could complete a shopping transaction on behalf of a consumer. And it appears consumers may want to forestall such transactions until they get much more comfortable with the technology, suggests the Riskified Agentic Commerce Pulse first-quarter report. Riskified, with …

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