Fraud & Security

American Express Co. announced it has agreed to acquire digital lender Kabbage Inc. in a deal expected to close later this year. Kabbage’s existing loan portfolio is not included in the transaction, for which terms were not announced. Eleven-year-old Kabbage entered the payment processing business in 2018.Restaurants and other businesses in Pasadena, Calif., …

There’s been a lot of buzz around recent reports—notably one in The New York Times—that Square has been withholding money from merchants. Apparently, with little to no warning, the company has been holding back up to 30% of merchant sales in some cases. The merchants affected, obviously, aren’t pleased. With …

Kallpod LLC announced its Kontactless Quick Response code-based payment service is now available at select Hyatt, Courtyard Marriott, and Hilton locations. Consumers can place orders for food, beverages, and merchandise to be delivered where the user is sitting. They scan a QR code at a table or seat, which opens a …

Standard Cognition Corp., a San Francisco-based provider of autonomous checkout systems based on artificial intelligence, expects to have the first of Alimentation Couche-Tard’s Circle K convenience stores retrofitted and up and running in early 2021, with potentially dozens more to follow. The first store to adopt the technology will be in …

The Covid-19 pandemic in July fueled a sharp rise in e-commerce but also in fraud, according to the latest figures from ACI Worldwide Inc.  Global e-commerce transactions rose 19% in July over the same period a year earlier. Fraudulent transactions by value rose 4.4%, up from a 3.7% increase in …

Payments providers Fortis Payment Systems LLC and Blue Dog Business Services LLC announced they have merged. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.ATM portfolio manager Payment Alliance International Inc. said it has acquired the Cash-N-Go ATM portfolio of Cash N Go ATM Network Inc. The deal adds almost 400 machines to Payment Alliance’s portfolio, …

Sound Payments Inc., a multichannel technology provider that offers point-of-sale solutions for the petroleum industry, expects its partnership with National Retail Solutions, a subsidiary of IDT Corp., to accelerate adoption of EMV at in-pump card readers among independent gas stations and convenience stores. Sounds Payments argues its EMV in-pump card …

While the Covid-19 pandemic has raised the issue of speeding stimulus payments and other relief to consumers and businesses, The Federal Reserve system is staying with its planned 2023 or 2024 launch date for its FedNow real-time payment service, officials said Thursday in an update that comes almost exactly one …

Square Inc. posted its second-quarter results and held an earnings call hours earlier than originally scheduled owing to what Square called “early external access to the company’s quarterly financials.” Net revenue climbed 64% year-over-year to $1.92 billion. Square posted a net loss of $11 million compared to a negative $7 million last …

With consumers flocking to e-commerce during the Covid-19 pandemic, net product sales for Amazon.com Inc. totaled $50.2 billion the June quarter, up 40% year-over-year. Sales at its physical stores dropped 13% to $3.8 billion.China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest retail market this year, eMarketer Inc. predicted in its “Global …