Acquiring

• Visa Inc. and chip maker and software provider Intel Corp. announced a two-pronged security initiative, one of which aims to protect the growing Zelle person-to-person payments network, to which Fiserv is providing a link. Zelle is expected to launch early next year. • In related news, Fifth Third Bank …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews You thought Visa Inc. was big already? Boosted by Visa Europe and solid growth in the U.S. and some other regions, the world’s largest card network’s credit and debit card payment volume grew 47% in the quarter ended Sept. 30. Foster City, Calif.-based Visa Inc. on Monday …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews It’s in its infancy, but the Internet of Things, or IoT, will represent a $14 billion revenue opportunity globally by 2020 for payments firms smart enough to capitalize on it, according to research firm IDC Financial Insights. “That is a very conservative estimate,” James Wester, research director …

• Visa Inc. announced five key person-to-person payment integrations for its Visa Direct faster-payments system, which requires Visa issuers to make funds available to cardholders within 30 minutes. These include: Jack Henry & Associates for JHA Payment Solutions, Fidelity National Information Services for its People Pay service, Stripe Inc. for …

• Merchant acquirer Worldpay brought its Worldpay Total integrated payments platform to the U.S.; Worldpay introduced the platform in the United Kingdom in November 2014 and extended it to European e-commerce merchants earlier this year. • U.S. Bancorp, owner of merchant acquirer Elavon, posted $412 million in merchant-processing revenues in …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The loss of its cobranded card and exclusive credit card acceptance relationship with Costco Wholesale Corp. hit American Express Co. hard in the third quarter, but AmEx’s chief financial officer on Wednesday said brighter days lie ahead as the company builds new business. The quarter ended Sept. …

• Bank of America Corp. said its debit card purchase volumes totaled $71 billion in the third quarter, up 2.5% from $69.3 billion a year earlier. U.S. credit card purchase volume increased 2% to $57.6 billion. BofA said it now has 21.3 million mobile-banking users, a 15.8% increase from 18.4 …

• Payments provider TransFirst, a unit of Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), and Raintree Systems, which provides specialized practice-management software, formed a partnership that sees TransFirst as the integrated payments provider in Raintree’s software. • Following its decision earlier this week to halt production, sale, and exchange of its troubled …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Fuzse, a new payments company targeting merchants that want seamless payment flows, is embracing software developers and independent software vendors as a way to reach them. The Dallas-based company, founded by Lane Conner, a former executive at First American Payment Systems L.P., Century Payments, and most recently …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Just a week into the fourth quarter, merchants and payments companies already are preparing for the busy holiday-shopping season. American Express Co. marks its seventh annual Small Business Saturday—Nov. 26—with the debut of the Shop Small Studio at ShopSmall.com. The service provides merchants with Web-site badges, flyers, …