Competitive Strategies

Hackers gained unauthorized access to credit or debit card data stored with software company CentralSquare Technologies and used for one-time water-bill payments made through the city of Pompano Beach, Fla.’s Web site from Aug. 30 to Dec. 6, 2018, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Nearly 3,800 customers made one-time payments …

Puerto Rico-based payment processor Evertec Inc. suffered along with the rest of the island when hurricanes Irma and especially Maria swept through in September 2017 and destroyed homes, businesses, and the electrical grid, but now Evertec’s payment volumes are surging as the island recovers. Puerto Rican transaction volumes were up …

A bevy of fees levied by the two major card networks is offsetting much of the fee relief merchants receive from the 7-year-old Durbin Amendment, according to new findings from a payments-research firm that is studying the issue on behalf of the retail industry. While the Durbin caps on debit …

NCR Corp. announced it acquired BEC, said to be a leading provider in Colorado of point-of-sale technology for the hospitality industry. BEC, which accounts for 2,600 sites, has been an NCR reseller for 23 years. Terms were not announced. After years of unsuccessful attempts to win government approval to operate …

The federal court handling the long-running class-action litigation between merchants on one hand and big banks and Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. on the other announced on Friday it has granted “preliminary approval” to a settlement that could award between $5.54 billion and $6.24 billion to merchant plaintiffs. The parties …

PayPal Holdings Inc. introduced a so-called rainbow card for users of its Venmo peer-to-peer payments service. The colorful plastic, available for a limited time, is the latest version of a debit card PayPal launched last year to allow users to pay merchants with their Venmo balance. As with the original …

It was a rough 2018 for leading ATM network operator Cardtronics plc, but the company’s top management predicted Thursday that 2019 will be better. Houston-based Cardtronics early last year muddled through the end of its long-standing relationship with its biggest customer, 7-Eleven Inc., which is pulling down year-on-year comparisons. At …

Green Dot Corp.’s diversification from a pure prepaid card management company into banking and other financial-services niches is driving direct deposits into its card accounts and spurring revenue-generating payment volume, according to the company’s latest financial report. Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot said Wednesday that fourth-quarter purchase volume on its cards …

The use of chatbots in financial services is about to explode, if research released this week is any indication. Adoption will be such that the technology will save banks worldwide $7.3 billion in annual operating costs by 2023, compared to a projected $209 million this year, estimates Juniper Research in …

Apple Inc. and the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will begin issuing a joint credit card this spring, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new card will tie into the Apple Wallet. Apple’s brand already is on a credit card issued by Barclaycard. It is unknown what will happen to that …