The Electronic Payments Coalition has opened a new front in its battle to prevent passage of the Credit Card Competition Act: it’s recruiting social-media influencers to join its cause. In June, the EPC put out a memo on the new tactic as part of its “Hands Off My Rewards” campaign …

BNPL providers are expanding the utility of the payment option by enabling consumers to finance gift card purchases. BNPL provider Affirm Holdings Inc. announced Tuesday it is partnering with prepaid card platform provider Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. to allow consumers to purchase digital gift cards on Affirm.com or in the …

Holiday sales were robust in November, giving merchants reason to be optimistic about overall spending for the holiday shopping season, according to the National Retail Federation. Total retail sales in November, excluding automobiles and gasoline, rose 0.77% month-over-month on a seasonally adjusted basis, and 4.24% on an unadjusted basis year-over-year,  …

With Congress scheduled to adjourn Dec. 15, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., made a last-minute push on the Senate floor late Thursday, calling for a vote on the Credit Card Competition Act before adjournment. Durbin’s remarks, which also pushed back against arguments by  card networks and card issuers that the proposed …

E-commerce wallet-technology provider Citcon USA LLC has partnered with Alipay to enable merchants in the United States to accept e-wallet payments from international travelers through the Alipay+ platform. Alipay+ is a cross-border mobile-payment platform that enables consumers traveling abroad to make purchases using a chosen payment method.  The partnership marks …

Payments-platform provider Pidgin Inc. will work with Modern Banking Systems, a provider of core bank-processing technology, in an effort to bring real-time payments capability to community banks. Pidgin’s platform supports real-time processing through multiple payment rails, including FedNow and The Clearing House Payments Co.’s Real-Time Payments network. The deal was …

Financial technology platform provider Adyen NV late Monday announced it will become the acquiring bank for global payments platform Klarna AB next year for markets in North America, Europe, and Asia. The deal expands the companies’ more than decade-old partnership through which Adyen offers Klarna’s payment options to consumers, including …

Small businesses are failing to offer the online experiences Gen Zers and Millennials expect, especially when it comes to payments, reveals a survey by GoDaddy Inc., an Internet domain registry and payments-technology company. While 73% of Gen Zers and 83% of Millennials say a buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) option …

POSaBIT Systems Corp., a payments processor specializing in cannabis merchants, announced its third-quarter earnings along with plans for a point-of-sale device earmarked for cannabis retailing. The company said transaction volume for the quarter totaled $157.9 million, up 11% from the same period a year ago. Revenues for the quarter totaled …

Payments-platform provider Payroc LLC has launched an application programming interface that enables clients to offer its PayByBank solution in the United States and Canada through a single interface. Before this launch, Payroc clients needed separate interfaces to offer PayByBank in each country. The single interface eliminates the need for multiple …