Competitive Strategies

Convenience-store operators are keen for any edge when it comes to attracting and retaining consumers. Bolla Oil Corp., operating c-stores under the Bolla Market moniker, launched its first customer loyalty program using technology from Par Technology Corp. to help with that effort. In related news, PointsKash Inc. will work with …

PCI Pal has launched a passkey customer authentication service that it says allows merchants to verify customer identity at the start of a transaction. Fraud prevention specialist Scamnetic rebranded its IDeveryone Payment Protection division as PayVerify. Integrated Research launched Iris for Card Payments, AI technology that it says assists payments companies in detecting transaction …

The cross-border payments startup Nuvion said early Monday it will work with Visa Direct, a faster-payments network, to enable businesses to send real-time payouts globally. The service is aimed at smoothing faster payments to a host of everyday recipients, including suppliers, contractors, and customers, Nuvion says. Founded only in 2024, …

MoneyGram joined the Solana blockchain system and is part of the Solana Developer Platform. MoneyGram launched its MGUSD stablecoin earlier this month. Stablecoin blockchain Plasma launched Plasma One, an everyday stablecoin-spending capability, in its mobile app. KuCoin’s KuCoin Pay, a payments service based on cryptocurrency, said it is expanding its payments offering, based on recognition of …

Rent, the 12-times-a-year installment payment many consumers make, could benefit from splitting further into two payments a month, suggests a study released by Flexible Finance Inc., also known as Flex. New York City-based Flex commissioned the study, which was completed by San Francisco-based research firm MetroSight. Flex enables tenants to …

MassPay, a payment platform enabling businesses to send payments globally, said it has integrated three new services via agreements with providers—account name inquiry, account validation services, and bank account and name validation. Young Kim, a U.S. Congresswoman from California, has proposed the Strengthening Transaction Oversight and Preventing Payments Fraud Act, aimed at allowing …

Celero Commerce, an active buyer of other payments companies across its relatively brief time in the transaction-processing business, is itself the target of an acquisition in a $625-million deal announced early Thursday. The buyer is Deluxe Corp., which sees the acquisition bulking up its position in providing payments and data …

U.S. Bank’s Elavon processing unit said it has expanded its All-In-One payments service across North America for in-store, mobile, and online transactions. The service relies on a partnership with POS device provider Castles Technology. ACI Worldwide Inc. warned that fraud indications it has seen in relation to prior major tournaments are emerging as …

Shopify Inc.’s latest update to its point-of-sale and e-commerce platform makes artificial intelligence commerce uses central, enabling its merchants to more easily adopt agentic commerce as a channel. The Spring platform update, which includes more than 150 revisions, adds support for sign in with Shop, its consumer-facing app and marketplace, …