Competitive Strategies

A big movement among financial institutions to join the Federal Reserve’s FedNow real-time payments network appears to be benefiting its biggest rival, as well. “Ever since FedNow launched, we’ve seen a surge of interest in real-time payments,” says a spokesman for the Real Time Payments network operated by The Clearing …

Presto Automation Inc. forecast its new, artificial-intelligence-based Presto Voice ordering system for drive-through restaurants will have been adopted by 1,270 locations by the end of 2024, up from the current count of 404. River, a provider of technology and financial services related to Bitcoin, launched River Link, a service that lets users send …

Repay Holdings Corp., a provider of payment-processing services, has partnered with Green Dot Corp. to enable Repay merchants to accept cash-based bill payments at more than 45,000 locations in the United States. The service depends on Green Dot’s eCash technology, which enables users to present a barcode that serves as …

In recent years, point-of-sale technology providers specializing in the hospitality industry have had a tough go of it. First came the pandemic, which shut down restaurants across the country. And now, the business has emerged as perhaps the most crowded POS market in North America, with at least a dozen …

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 …

Buy now, pay later provider Zip Co. said U.S. merchants that accept Google Pay online can integrate Zip’s Pay-in-4 service, backed by WebBank, for Google Pay transactions. Trustly Group AB, an open-banking payments platform, announced its transaction volume on the Real Time Payments network increased 29% in the third quarter over the …

Discover Financial Services said its board of directors has appointed Michael G. Rhodes chief executive and president. Rhodes, who will take office on or before March 6, succeeds interim CEO and president John Owen, who will continue as a Discover board member. Rhodes comes to Discover from TD Bank, where he was …

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 …

Digital ordering took off when the pandemic set in, and while Covid has subsided, the appetite for online ordering and payment has only surged among restaurants. Now the trend has claimed a major chain that until now had proven resistant to the technology. Olo Inc., a New York City-based dining-technology …

Short-message service, or SMS, is coming to the aid of fraud managers looking to verify the identity of persons on the receiving end of payments transactions. The technology, which undergirds the well-known texting function between users of mobile phones, can be harnessed to stop fraud, according to security firm DataVisor …