Acquiring

In an effort to appeal to travelers from abroad, China’s dominant UnionPay payments card network announced early Wednesday a new platform designed to simplify everyday transactions for international visitors. Dubbed Nihao China, the new app offers a range of capabilities, including cross-border and person-to-person payments, according to 23-year-old UnionPay, which …

FICO’s latest scoring models now factor in buy now, pay later repayment data, a milestone many hoped would bring these plans into the mainstream credit system, giving lenders more visibility into consumers’ total debt and payment behavior.  However, despite billions flowing through installment-payment platforms, lenders still can’t see the full credit picture. …

In-store and online retail sales in the U.S. market grew 3.9% from Nov. 1 through Dec. 21 compared to last year, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse report, which excludes automotive sales. The result, which is not adjusted for inflation, represents all payment types… …while preliminary data in a separate report from Visa Inc. indicate …

Fiserv Inc. looked to position itself at the forefront of agentic commerce early Monday with the adoption of protocols from Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.  Fiserv will deploy Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol across its payments system to authenticate, retrieve, accept, and process agentic transactions. Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol identifies trusted …

The speed and apparent lower cost of stablecoins—coupled with the digital currency’s rising prominence as a payments method—has captured the imagination of payments companies. Now some are leveraging the coins for both internal and merchant funding. Shift4 Payments Inc. said early Monday it has launched a facility for stablecoin settlement …

The Federal Reserve opened a 45-day public comment period on a proposal that would enable eligible financial institutions to clear and settle payments within the Fed’s payment services. Dubbed payment account, this account would be distinct from a master account, the Fed said, which is what financial institutions currently must use for …

POSaBIT Systems Corp., a payments processor specializing in cannabis merchants, and Dutchie, a software provider to more than over 6,500 cannabis businesses, late Thursday lauded the Trump administration’s decision to reclassify cannabis to a Schedule III drug as a move that could finally open the door for cannabis merchants to …

Less than 90 days into closing its acquisition of BlueSnap Inc., Payroc WorldAccess LLC is pushing ahead with its dual strategy of courting small and mid-size businesses that may need a point-of-sale terminal and prospecting larger merchants with integrated payment needs. It sees the acquisition not as an end goal, …

Visa Inc. announced early Thursday hundreds of artificial intelligence-based and agent-initiated transactions have been completed in collaboration with partners, a milestone the card network says is a signal that agentic commerce is poised to become mainstream in 2026.  By the start of the next year’s holiday shopping season, Visa predicts …