Competitive Strategies

North America has emerged as the largest sales-generating region for buy now, pay later provider Afterpay Ltd. In the Australia-based company’s latest financial results, North America sales accounted for A$2.6 billion (US$2 billion) in the third quarter ended March 30. Only Australia and New Zealand approach that volume. Overall, Afterpay said …

Some 83% of consumers said they had used a QR code in the past year to make a payment or complete a financial transaction, with 54% of those persons saying they had used a QR code for those purposes for the first time in only the past three months. Still, just 39% …

With its name change having become official Monday, Cantaloupe Inc. is looking to start a new chapter in the company’s history as it embarks on a strategy to penetrate new segments of the unattended retail market and grow its business internationally. As part of the change from USA Technologies Inc., …

Saturday has come and gone, and it appears plenty of gas stations—including many branded by major oil companies—are still falling short of chip card acceptance at the pump, despite a deadline for EMV compliance that fell on April 17. Some 48% of fuel and convenience-store sellers have complied with the …

San Francisco late last week became the fourth city to roll out Cubic Transportation Systems’ mobile contactless-payment application, joining Washington D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles. Consumers can use the white-label app and an iPhone or Apple Watch to purchase tickets from the 24 transit agencies that operate the city’s subway, …

Mastercard Inc. said it will acquire Ekata, a digital identity services company, for $850 million. Ekata helps identify good customers and businesses and bad actors in real time, it said. Ekata, formerly the business-to-business unit of Whitepages Pro, spun off in 2019 and adopted the new name. The deal is expected …

More evidence emerges of how consumer spending has changed in the past year. Consumers are using their debit cards more for transactions at hotels and motels within the travel sector, according to the PSCU Payments Index for April. Released Thursday, the index shows that debit card use accounted for 35% …

Payments provider Nuvei Corp. has agreed to acquire Mazooma Technical Services Inc., a payment-technology provider for sports betting, for $56 million plus additional consideration upon achievement of performance criteria.Payments fintech Mogo Inc. has closed on its acquisition of a nearly 20% interest in digital-asset trading platform Coinsquare Ltd.The Clipper app, introduced by Cubic Transportation Systems and …

After the current U.S. Congress was sworn in, a predictable chorus of merchants, lobbyists, and lawmakers demanded new interchange price caps and other government mandates to decrease credit card interchange fees for merchants. The tired attacks on credit cards are an easy narrative that focuses almost exclusively on the cost …

Faster-payment volume soared 88% on the nation’s automated clearing house network in the year’s first quarter compared to the same period in 2020, Nacha reported Thursday. Transactions processed the same day they were initiated totaled 141.1 million, compared to 75 million in last year’s March quarter, the last period before …