Competitive Strategies

The persistent need to provide the latest payment-acceptance tools and the pressure to keep an acquirer’s brand front and center often exist in parallel. North, a Troy, Mich.-based acquirer, is marking its launch of Embedded Checkout by North while competitor Kurv renews its sponsorship of the Cleveland Browns. North says …

Toast, known for its point-of-sale payments technology for restaurants, has launched Toast Fuel to support convenience stores in accepting payments in-store and at the pump. The expansion, which includes both retail and foodservice transactions, will enable all payments to be handled on a single platform, Toast says. C-stores sell an …

Bank of America Corp. said its transaction volume flowing on the RTP network, an instant payment service operated by The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC, increased 48% from January through July compared with the same period in 2025. Much of that is attributed to RTP’s transaction limit increase to $10 …

Processor and core banking services provider FIS Inc. is taking a step to make it easier for debit card users at banks and credit unions to understand debit card transactions on their statements. It’s a move that could reduce chargeback inquiries. Developed with Spade, a New York City-based transaction data …

American Express Co. announced its cards are now accepted at more than 190 million merchant locations globally, including 20 million added so far this year. Beyond its longtime base in hotels, restaurants, and airlines, AmEx says it is now accepted at an estimated 800-plus transit authorities globally. Chase said it has begun …

Near-field communication technology that has found its way into almost every credit and debit card could also be used to enable video gamers to pay for new games and movies with a tap of the card against a Sony PlayStation controller, according to a recent patent by the electronics giant. …

Fresha, a provider of booking and payments technology for barbers and beauty-shop proprietors, said Friday its roster of barber clients has climbed 108% year-over-year, moving the company to claim number-one status among tech developers for the hair-care market. The 11-year-old, London-based company, which supports hair-care shops and companies in the …

International expansion of U.S. real-time payment services seems to be at hand as FedNow, the instant-payment service operated by the Federal Reserve, prepares to test cross-border transactions. Announced Wednesday, the test will involve a group of organizations that were not named. They will test “FedNow enhanced message formats that facilitates …

Scooter’s Coffee, a drive-through chain with more than 900 locations in 32 states, is using restaurant-payments specialist Olo to run its digital-ordering service, Olo announced. SumUp has launched U.S. POS Plus, a subscription-based point-of-sale technology offering for small café and restaurant businesses. Square, the merchant services arm of Block Inc., said its sellers …

Remittances across borders are a welcome but expensive cross-border payment service for many, finds a new Visa Inc. report, “Money Travels 2026.” With the U.S. alone sending $107.1 billion in outbound remittances in 2025, according to World Bank data, remittances can have a significant impact on recipients. Yet, many have …