Issuing/Originating

Chip cards are coming to state benefit programs, with the latest development emerging from Alabama. The state’s Department of Human Resources is mailing electronic benefit cards embedded with chips as a means to combat fraud, according to an announcement early Friday from the chip card supplier, Conduent Inc. The chip …

Illinois merchants scored a big victory late Tuesday in their battle for interchange relief as United States District Court Judge Virginia Kendall upheld the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act. The decision, which comes after more than a year of legal wrangling, means the IFPA will go into effect July 1, …

Fiserv’s chief executive early Tuesday told Wall Street not to look for immediate improvement following a sub-par year in 2025. “Our headline results are below our expectations and will remain that way until mid-year,” chief executive Michael Lyons told equity analysts at the top of a group call with equity …

Installment-payment platform Affirm Holdings Inc. said it will provide financing to customers of Virgin Media O2, a United Kingdom-based vender of mobile devices. In related news, Affirm said it has expanded its agreement with online merchant Wayfair to offer installment payments to consumers in Canada and the United Kingdom on top of the current …

Bolt Financial Inc., whose app offers checkout, identity, and payments capabilities, announced it is adding embedded investing capability through a deal with Atomic, an investing-as-a-service platform. Corpay Inc. said it will sell its PayByPhone mobile parking payments platform to Lightyear Capital in a deal expected to close in the second quarter. …

Plans to attach an amended version of the Credit Card Competition Act to a cryptocurrency-infrastructure bill were shelved Thursday, effectively leaving two versions of the bill floating around Congress. The CCCA was amended late last week to include a provision that called for enforcement of the CCCA under antitrust law, …

Restaurant POS provider SpotOn will work with Loman AI to allow restaurants using SpotOn to leverage AI-based phone automation to book reservations, take orders, and perform other services.  Payments provider WEX has launched its WEX Fleet card with capability for EV charging added to traditional fuel payments, becoming the first fuel card issuer to combine fueling …

Merchants and consumers are embracing cryptocurrency as a mainstream payments option, according to a study from the National Cryptocurrency Association and PayPal Holdings Inc. Some 39% of merchants surveyed accept cryptocurrency at checkout, while 84% believe crypto payments will become common in the next five years, the study says. A …

Affirm Holdings Inc. early Monday widened banks’ access to its buy now, pay later loan programs for debit card holders through a deal with Fiserv Inc. The deal will enable banks on the Fiserv network to integrate Affirm’s pay-over-time solution into their debit card programs via their digital-banking and mobile-app …

The Merchants Payments Coalition released a letter from it and 350 merchant groups in support of the Credit Card Competition Act urging that the bill be attached to a proposed cryptocurrency marketplace structure legislation. The measure is expected to be discussed Tuesday by the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. The New England Automated …