Acquiring

Total charge volume on Discover Financial Services’s networks fell 5% in the first quarter thanks to a 15% drop at the Discover-owned Pulse electronic funds transfer network. But U.S. Bancorp, which owns the big merchant acquirer Elavon, says its merchant-processing revenue increased 4% due to higher transaction volumes and sales …

• The Merchants Payments Coalition, a lobbying group for merchants on payment issues, attacked a Harvard University research paper as “just plain wrong” after the paper argued the debit-interchange caps in the Durbin Amendment to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act drove up banking costs for consumers. • Terminal maker Ingenico Group …

• Merchant processor North American Bancard Holdings introduced its Inovio Payment gateway service; NAB says Inovio’s name is taken from the word “innovation” and that the service, which includes a virtual point of sale and hosted checkout solutions, will open new markets for the company. • Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has changed …

Merchant processor Cayan on Monday unveiled a new point-of-sale system for small and mid-sized businesses that want high-tech capabilities without the costs and hassles of managing integrated POS systems like those used by national retailers. Global POS terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc., meanwhile, announced the integration of its Verifone Point …

• Fidelity National Information Services Inc. and The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC announced they will launch a pilot for real-time payments in the first quarter of next year. The system will focus initially on bill payments and will use FIS technology along with The Clearing House’s real-time payment platform. …

• Canada-based Mobeewave is making its PayMeTap mobile peer-to-peer app available to consumers across Canada. The free app had been in testing. The Android app enables consumers to accept a payment by tapping a phone with a contactless credit card.   • Payments company BillingTree Inc. launched the Payrazr Marketplace, …

• Prepaid card and mobile-banking provider Green Dot Corp. named three new independent directors to its board and non-independent director Sam Altman stepped down as the company expanded its board from eight to 10 directors, all but one of them now independent. Green Dot shareholder Harvest Capital Strategies LLC, which …

• Prepaid card provider Green Dot Corp., under pressure from an activist investor to boost earnings, announced it would buy $50 million of its Class A common shares under an accelerated stock-repurchase plan.   • Remote deposit capture and mobile-payments technology provider Cachet Financial Solutions Inc. will continue to provide …

Merchant processor iPayment Inc. announced Monday it will offer a white-label version of Apriva’s AprivaPay Plus to small and mid-size merchants. Dubbed iPayment MobilePay, the mobile point-of-sale service uses AprivaPay Plus, mPOS software developed by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Apriva. Merchants can use the service with iOS, Android, or Amazon Fire mobile …

Funding activity for startups in the payments business continued at a hectic pace over the past six months—but the total dollars invested fell through the floor. There were 75 funding deals in the first quarter totaling $396 million, according to the latest data from CB Insights, a New York City-based …