Competitive Strategies

Discover Financial Services said it has enabled Samsung Pay on the latest Samsung Galaxy smart phones and wearables for its cards in the United States. Discover announced in 2015 that it would support Samsung Pay. Cross-border payments provider Veem, formerly known as Align Commerce, announced an integration with QuickBooks Online, used by small …

Visa Inc. is investing in Klarna, a Sweden-based payment processor that offers retail credit options for merchants, the card brand announced Tuesday. The intent, Visa says, is to develop a “future strategic partnership,” which appears to focus on Europe, though Klarna also operates in North America. Visa says the deal …

U.S.-based cross-border payments provider dLocal said it has added three major Chinese payment systems—WeChat Pay, AliPay, and UnionPay—to its platform. The three account for more than 70% of the Chinese market, according to dLocal. In related news, Flywire Corp., which recently expanded its cross-border payments business to include business-to business transfers, announced it has added …

Seeking to leverage its brand while boosting its presence among Web merchants, merchant acquirer Square Inc. last week introduced Square Checkout, a Square-hosted system that enables consumers to pay online while providing merchants with access to the company’s technical and business services. Consumers usually don’t know, or care, which processor …

As the nation’s automated clearing house network introduces faster payments, it’s also racking up steady increases in transaction volume. The system processed approximately 5.35 billion payments in the first quarter, notching nearly 7% growth over the first quarter of last year and rebounding smartly from a tepid 3.7% growth rate …

Apple Pay users visiting restaurants that are part of Punchh Inc.’s restaurant-loyalty service will be able to earn and redeem points when using the mobile-payment service, Punchh announced Thursday. Smashburger, Quiznos, and MOD Pizza will offer the Apple Pay/Punchh service later this year, Mountain View, Calif.-based Punchhsays. Apple Pay users …

• The National Retail Federation announced that senior vice president and general counsel Mallory Duncan plans to retire at the end of August. Duncan joined the trade group in 1994 as general counsel and is a staunch advocate for merchants’ interests on payments issues. He plans to consult on payments and …

• Payment technology provider VeriFone Systems Inc. said it has integrated with the AirportConnect Common Use Payment Service from SITA, the big information-technology and communications specialist serving the air-transport industry, to bring electronic payment acceptance for multiple airlines and ground handlers at airport check-in desks, kiosks and bag drops via a …

• Juniper Research released a study estimating retailers globally will sustain $71 billion in card-not-present fraud over the next five years. The firm cites the U.S. move to EMV and “delays” in the arrival of the 3D Secure 2.0 protocol among the reasons for the forecasted losses. • Michael S. Blume, …

By John Stewart@DTPaymentNews PayPal Holdings Inc. on Tuesday cranked up the heat on a person-to-person payments market that’s already close to full boil. In a blog post on PayPal’s site, PayPal chief operating officer Bill Ready announced the company has started testing instant transfers from users’ PayPal wallets to their …