Competitive Strategies

Square Inc. launched its Early Access Program for beta testing in Spain. The program allows select businesses and freelancers to access Square technology. The move marks Square’s entry in the Spanish market.Sky Systemz, a business-to-business software company, launched Sky Paymentz, a service to enable businesses to accept payments in person, online, …

Real-time bill payment took another large step forward Wednesday with BNY Mellon’s announcement it is partnering with Verizon Communications Inc. and Citibank to enable Verizon customers with Citibank accounts to pay their bills with near-instant effect.  The agreement connects BNY Mellon as the billing bank, Verizon as the biller, and …

Like a coiled spring, consumer demand is set to explode once social, entertainment, and shopping restrictions are lifted. Retail and hospitality will be the first to benefit as consumers seek to make-up for lost ground. But has Covid left businesses too weak to reap the rewards or has it helped …

Visa Inc. announced it has helped enable an estimated 16 million small businesses globally for digital payments, reaching 30% of its goal to so enable some 50 million small concerns.The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it will acquire GreenSky Inc., a provider of payments and loans at the point of sale for more …

Six years after it shut down its last effort in mobile wallets for merchant payments, Square Inc. on Monday announced it is launching a new payments feature that will let users of its highly popular Cash App pay sellers in-store and online. Cash App Pay, which can be used at …

In a bid to help brands and retailers counter fraud, counterfeiting, and misredemption losses from coupons, all of which can total more than $100 million annually, fintech SKUx early Tuesday introduced SKUPay. The application allows brands to replace paper and digital coupons with serialized digital offers that have individualized tracking …

Bot attack volumes increased 41% year-over-year in the first half of 2021, according to the latest Cybercrime Report from LexisNexis Risk Solutions.Outseer, an RSA Security LLC company, said its 3-D Secure technology has processed $100 billion in transactions to date in 2021. It also released its third quarter “Fraud & Payments …

As digital commerce continues to proliferate globally, the need for identity-resolution technology has grown exponentially. Credit-reporting giant TransUnion LLC on Monday strengthened its hand in that capability with the announcement it is acquiring Neustar Inc. for $3.1 billion. TransUnion will finance the deal with a combination of cash and debt.  …

It’s more than 100 days until Christmas, but forecasts for the 2021 holiday shopping season are already rolling in. Mastercard Inc., in its SpendingPulse report released Monday, forecasts that U.S. holiday retail spending from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 will increase 7.4% over 2020 and 11.1% over the same period …

Commerce specialists SpotOn Transact LLC said it will acquire Appetize Technologies Inc., a point-of-sale technology provider for the hospitality and entertainment industries. Terms were not disclosed. SpotOn also said it raised $300 million in Series E funding, which it will use to help pay for the Appetize acquisition.Integrated-payments provider EngageSmart LLC announced an initial public …