Acquiring

Open-banking specialist Plaid Inc. unveiled Plaid Guaranteed Payments, a bank payment service. Plaid said the service will evaluate each transaction in real time and return an approval decision within milliseconds. If Plaid approves the transaction, it will guarantee the settlement. If the payment fails, it will cover the loss and handle recovery, …

Just as legitimate transactions are a certainty in payments, so too, are fraud and scams. That doesn’t mean payments companies and their vendors need to just accept that. Now, Mastercard Inc. says it is countering fraud and scams with a new service, Mastercard Merchant Trust Services, to help clients identify …

Payroc LLC launched Integration Essentials, a service to help software platforms more quickly embed Payroc’s payments services into their platform. It includes prebuilt services such as hosted payment pages, payment links, and Payroc Cloud for in-person acceptance. French processor Worldline has agreed to acquire transactions for the buy now, pay later …

Finix Payments Inc. is leaning into the unattended payments arena with the launch of its Android-based point-of-sale terminal designed for self-service payments. In related news, Deluxe Corp. formed a merchant services partnership with Dollar Bank. San Francisco-based Finix says its new POS terminal is meant to meet demand for contactless, …

Datacap Systems Inc. launched Virtual Gift, a platform that enables users to create branded, consumer-facing digital gift card storefronts. Gift card purchases can be shared via a link, QR code, or embedded directly into merchant Web sites. InComm Payments’ health-care unit is working with the University of Kentucky’s HealthCare’s Food as Health …

Global Payments Inc. intends for artificial-intelligence capabilities to make its Genius handheld point-of-sale device easier for users while it also launches self-service kiosks. But it’s not the only payment-device provider eyeing that market. PAX Technology Inc. will showcase its self-service Smart Kiosk this week, too, at the National Restaurant Show …

The processor Paysafe Ltd. early Wednesday reported it processed $43.9 billion in volume in the March quarter, a 10% improvement over the same period last year, with 19% growth in the company’s digital-wallet segment outpacing the much larger merchant-solutions unit, which posted an 8% jump, to $37.2 billion. Paysafe has …

Some 53% of U.S. consumers carry a balance on their credit cards in response to rising costs, while 25% carry a balance for six months or more, says a survey from personal-finance platform Achieve. The research, conducted in March by the Achieve Center for Consumer Insights, queried 2,000 consumers. Xero, a …

Competition for payments processing in the $1 trillion plus U.S. restaurant industry, already hot, reached a higher temperature Tuesday with announcements from Toast Inc. and processing giant Fiserv Inc. Toast, a 15-year-old specialist in restaurant point of sale, said it is expanding its reach in the complex pizza business with …

Visa Inc. said it made the first-ever use of its Tap to Confirm and Tap to Activate technology for issuing banks in collaboration with fintech Keyno and Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) Ltd. Visa said instead of using one-time passcodes, call center verification, or other processes, cardholders can confirm their identity or activate …