Competitive Strategies

With the rise of APIs and the race for consumer loyalty, payments players are under pressure to innovate as never before. The result? A new openness to outside developers. If anything in the payments business can be said to approximate a company’s crown jewels, it’s the code that controls, uniquely …

The ATM EMV conversion is only partly done, and now deployers are beginning preparations for Windows 10 only a few years after upgrading to Windows 7. ATM deployers can take solace in the fact that their EMV upgrades are going faster than merchants’ conversion to chip card acceptance. But lest …

Restaurants have been slow to bite on EMV. To get adoption percolating, vendors are introducing methods that let customers add a tip after making a payment or pay with tabletop devices. Paying with EMV cards has been an adjustment for the average U.S. consumer. Cards are no longer swiped. They …

• Apple Inc. is once again talking to payments-industry players about launching a person-to-person payment service, according to a report on Recode.net, which cited “multiple sources familiar with the talks.” The sources say the service would allow iPhone users to send money to each other. Recode also reports Apple is talking to …

Whatever their personal feelings are about marijuana usage, the growth of the legal cannabis industry in many states will force bankers and payments executives to examine the business prospects of serving that industry, according to an executive with a regional automated clearing house association. While marijuana remains illegal under federal …

Mobile payments are on the radar for many airline executives. Fully 72% of North American airline executives responsible for revenue, finance, payments, and commerce, said the increase in customers using mobile payments and mobile banking is a factor in deploying digital wallets and alternative-payment methods, finds a new survey from …

• Processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) reported its revenues grew 60.2% year-over-year in the first quarter, to $1.2 billion from $739.4 million. Net income attributable to common shareholders was $105.9 million, up 16.8% from $90.6 million. For 2017, the company is raising its total revenue and net revenue guidance by …

Pay with Venmo, a fledgling merchant-payments service from PayPal Holdings Inc., is advancing to a broader testing stage with merchants, PayPal chief executive Dan Schulman said during a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s first-quarter results Wednesday. Announced in 2016, One Touch is PayPal’s rapidly growing checkout service …

As the U.S. payments industry prepares to adopt real-time payments, supporters are readying their services. The latest entry is the duo of Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) and The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC, which announced Tuesday an incubator in which banks and credit unions can take their first …

• Merchant processor Elavon Inc. announced it has added online storefront technology from 3dcart for e-commerce merchants and online-ordering capability for the talech point-of-sale tablet. • Peer Ledger, a Canadian blockchain company, said a study it conducted shows digital identity can be tied to the blockchain, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. …