Competitive Strategies

PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Braintree e-commerce processing unit launched Braintree Extend, a service offering that includes support for transaction services, rewards and loyalty, and contextual commerce. Brazil’s central bank this week announced a cap on debit card interchange of 0.80% of the transaction, while averaging no more than 0.50%, according to …

With the EMV conversion mostly behind it, the United States is ripe for another big change at the point of sale—adoption of tap-and-go payments, says Visa Inc. With 96% of its payment volume now chip-based, “the next thing we’re focusing on is contactless,” Stephanie Ericksen, the card network’s vice president …

Best known for serving prepaid card providers, Galileo Processing says it is rapidly expanding into other parts of the electronic-payments industry with new services, including application programming interfaces supporting cryptocurrency transactions. Salt Lake City, Utah-based Galileo declined to disclose actual numbers, but said earlier this week that it posted a …

A strong majority of consumers—60%—would use an intelligent personal assistant or voice-activated speaker to make a purchase or payment, finds the latest iteration of the TSYS U.S. Consumer Payment Study. The response is notable in because it was less than a year ago that another survey found only 19% of …

Remember micropayments? Most payments providers gave up on this class of electronic payments several years ago when it became apparent that technology couldn’t crack the problem of high-cost transactions applied to very low-value goods. But now at least one player is attacking the market with cryptocurrency. On Track Innovations Ltd., …

Denizen Financial Inc., a San Francisco-based startup backed by one of Spain’s biggest banks, has created what it calls “the first true global, borderless account” that allows customers to receive money in one country and pay it out in another while avoiding international transfer fees and foreign-exchange fees. Denizen says …

E-commerce platform provider Shopify Inc. chose Google’s cloud services to help host its online stores, Bloomberg reported. Payments provider Net Element Inc. said Jonathan Fichman, a former Bank of America Merrill Lynch executive who currently is managing director of C-Anax Ventures & Advisory, joined its board of directors.

Buy online, pick up in store is now a mainstream expectation for consumers, finds a survey from Kibo Software Inc., an e-commerce platform provider. In the Kibo “2018 Consumer Trends Report” of 3,000 U.S. consumers, 67% said they made a purchase online and picked it up in a store in …

With about 18 months of experience with contactless debit cards under its belt, TCF Financial Corp. says it’s all-in for so-called dual-interface cards and mobile payments as the number of U.S. merchant locations accepting contactless payments continues to grow. The Wayzata, Minn.-based company’s TCF Bank began supporting the major mobile …

Square Inc. is testing a program that gives consumers $1 off purchases at coffee shops when they pay with Square Cash, MarketWatch reported. Payout provider Hyperwallet announced that tilr, a recruiting platform, is using Hyperwallet for payouts to its clients. Candex, a business-services payments provider for purchases of under $100,000, …