Competitive Strategies

• MasterCard Inc. is mulling an application to become a licensed payment service provider in China, a massive payments market dominated by state-owned China UnionPay, according to Reuters. • agreement with Visa Inc. that includes promotion of Visa cards and a new point-of-sale thrust for PayPal. Visa was trading at …

Few observers are surprised big banks like Capital One Financial Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Wells Fargo & Co. are getting into the mobile-wallet market, but what about smaller financial institutions like credit unions and community banks? While some might figure the small players will fall into the arms …

Confirming months of speculation, MasterCard Inc. announced Thursday that it has a definitive deal to acquire VocaLink Holdings Ltd., operator of the United Kingdom’s automated clearing house and faster-payments systems, for £700 million, or approximately $920 million, in cash. London-based VocaLink operates BACS, the U.K.’s ACH network, as well as the …

For years, PayPal Holdings Inc. has struggled to bring its popular online payment product to the physical point of sale, and now a deal announced Thursday with Visa Inc. may help the company finally realize that ambition. The sweeping, multiyear agreement could also represent a thaw in what have often …

• American Express Co. reported $2 billion in net income for the second quarter, including a $1.1 billion pre-tax gain from the sale of its Costco Wholesale Corp. cobranded portfolio to Citigroup Inc., which is now issuing a cobranded Costco Visa credit card. AmEx’s U.S. card-billed business grew 2% year …

A little bit of London may find its way into the hands of U.S. transit riders. Cubic Transportation Systems, a unit of Cubic Corp., will license contactless ticketing technology developed by Transport for London, the U.K. capital’s transit agency, for use with similar agencies around the world. TfL’s technology enables transit …

• In a sign of further global expansion plans, merchant acquirer Square Inc. in June incorporated a business in the United Kingdom called Square Europe Ltd. and began testing its payment system in London, Reuters reported. Besides the U.S., Square already operates in Canada, Australia, and Japan. • Processor Total Merchant …

Look for cardless cash access at more ATMs in coming months. Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) and Payment Alliance International Inc. plan to bring the FIS Cardless Cash service to more than 70,000 PAI ATMs. The deal, announced Friday, will significantly expand the number of participating machines from the …

• Citing “changes in the market and an increasing number of mobile payment and banking options available” from financial institutions, the telco-led Canadian mobile-payments service suretap is shutting down as of Aug. 26, according to its Web site. The move follows the January 2015 failure of a similar telco-controlled venture …

Payment card charge volumes and merchant-processing revenues rose at several of the nation’s biggest banks during the second quarter, according to company reports as the mid-year earnings season got underway this week. Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp reported Friday that its payments businesses produced 22%, or $328 million, of the company’s $1.52 …