Competitive Strategies

• 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 …

• Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) announced it is supplying its FIS Cardless Cash ATM service to cash dispensers operated by Payment Alliance International. Ultimately, the service will include 70,000 ATMs in the PAI ATM network. • The United Kingdom’s Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled that Mastercard Inc. must pay approximately …

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 …

Samsung Pay, the mobile payment service launched by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. a year after Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay debuted, appears to be faring better with consumers despite Apple Pay’s higher adoption rate. In its most recent Mobile Pay Tracker, New York-based Auriemma Consulting Group, found that 92% of Samsung …

• Processor First Data Corp. and terminal maker Ingenico Group announced a new solution supporting EMV tip adjust and the common application identifier for debit and running on Ingenico smart terminals. First Data has certified the solution on its Omaha platform. • The Merchant Advisory Group launched KnowYourPayments.com, a Web …

Bitcoin watchers held their breath over the weekend when the celebrated “halving” took place, abruptly chopping in half the incentive those who produce Bitcoin receive and raising questions about the impact the event would have on the 7-year-old cryptocurrency. The halving, which is part of Bitcoin’s basic code and so …

Despite the hoopla surrounding EMV acceptance, and the constant promotions from acquirers and payments providers touting EMV-capable equipment, at least one acquirer, Square Inc., continues to believe there is a market for magnetic-stripe readers. A direct-mail piece from Square mailed late last week touts its magnetic-stripe reader along with its …

Fourth-quarter transaction decline rates for credit and debit cards used for subscription payments increased to 15.9% from a first-quarter 2015 low of 14.4%, based on the value of the transaction, according to a report from Recurly Inc., a recurring-payments specialist. The “Recurly Subscription Snapshot,” which analyzed 25 million recurring payments …

• Early Warning Services LLC said the three latest banks to start offering real-time person-to-person payments on its clearXchange network are Capital One, Chase, and Wells Fargo. ClearXchange members Bank of America and U.S. Bank had already introduced the service. As things stand, Chase customers can send and receive payments …

The acquiring business is accustomed to a slow rate of change, but that deliberate pace is masking radical underlying shifts in how merchants handle payments and whom they deal with for processing services, according to research at First Annapolis Consulting, Annapolis, Md. Change comes so slowly in this business that …