Competitive Strategies

So-called native automated clearing house payments that originate electronically rather than by conversion of a paper check continued their robust growth in the second quarter while same-day ACH transaction volume hit $16.6 billion, reports ACH governing body NACHA—The Electronic Payments Association.  In total, the ACH network transferred 5.35 billion payments, …

Bridg Inc., a marketing software company for the restaurant industry, said Thursday that it lined up $11 million in series B funding from Visa Inc. and private-equity firms Morpheus Ventures, NextEquity Partners, and March Capital. Specific investment amounts made by each company were not disclosed. Los Angeles-based Bridg uses artificial …

American Express Co. says it disagrees with an opinion from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that differences in card products it offered in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Territories from cards it offered in the United States amounted to discrimination. AmEx says it resolved the differences in 2013 after …

QualPay, a provider of cloud-based, integrated-payments solutions, launched a developer portal allowing integrators to evaluate and deploy payment services. Person-to-person payments by users of services offered by community banks and credit unions average $450, compared to $25 for users of Venmo, a popular third-party app, according to data from Malauzai Software, …

USA Technologies Inc., a provider of payment services for vending machines and other unattended merchant locations, said Tuesday the number of connections in its ePort network grew 32% year-over-year to 568,000 as of June 30, and transaction volume nearly as much. The Malvern, Pa.-based firm also reported net income of …

It’s what some may consider a bold forecast for contactless payments in the United States, but Juniper Research is predicting that, by 2022, 34% of electronic payments will be contactless, up from less than 2% in 2017. United Kingdom-based Juniper released its forecast Monday in a report called “POS and …

Steven A. Rathgaber, who has been chief executive of ATM-networking firm Cardtronics plc since 2010, will retire at the end of the year and will be succeeded by Edward H. West, currently chief financial officer and chief operations officer, the company announced. Rathgaber came to Cardtronics from the NYCE electronic funds transfer …

The political coroner has made an official pronouncement: Operation Choke Point is dead. The controversial program begun in 2013 by the U.S. Department of Justice during the administration of President Barack Obama aimed to deny payment services to fraudulent telemarketers, payday lenders, and other suspect merchants. It generated massive controversy for …

A pioneering mobile-payment wallet for mass transit has reached a milestone. Chicago’s Ventra app has been downloaded more than 2 million times since it became available in November 2015, according to an announcement Monday from Cubic Transportation Systems, the San Diego-based company that developed the app. Commuters have bought almost …

Financial-services processor Fiserv Inc. announced it has acquired real-time payments provider Dovetail Group Ltd. Terms were not announced. Payments provider Spectrum Payments said it joined the National Rural Health Association as a pipeline partner, enabling it to offer merchant services to association members. Blockchain technology firm BTCS Inc. said it has signed a non-binding letter of intent …