Issuing/Originating

Responding to pressure from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and other critics, Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are delaying planned adjustments to their credit card interchange rates until April next year, Bloomberg News reported. The rate adjustments had been set for next month and involved an estimated net $889 million in increased fee income for …

Debit is the most preferred payment option among consumers and contactless payments have doubled in the year since the declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic. That’s the assessment from the “Tracking Transaction Trends” report for the week ending March 7 from PSCU, a credit union service organization. Debit card spend for …

With the Covid-19 pandemic still imposing a huge financial weight on the nation’s small businesses and families, many legislators are understandably eager to pursue policies they feel will ease that burden. But lawmakers must be careful that they are looking at policies that really will help. Unfortunately, some sectors—in this …

By linking directly to UnionPay’s SecurePlus two-factor authentication application, digital-commerce platform provider Merchant e-Solutions Inc. expects to significantly reduce decline rates for UnionPay debit card transactions in the United States.  Decline rates are an especially nettlesome issue for UnionPay debit card holders, who account for about 60% of UnionPay’s 9 …

Visa Inc. said U.S. debit volume increased 31% in January and 16% in February over the comparable 2020 months, while its credit volume dipped 6% and 8%, respectively. In an 8-K filing, Visa, which did not release actual volume data, said for the quarter to date overall U.S. payments volume …

All eight hotels in The Kessler Collection will accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies under an agreement with digital-currency processor BitPay Inc. Guests will receive an email, from which they may pay using their crypto wallet.Personas Social Inc. launched its Paysonas payment-processing platform, which supports online real-time debit and Bitcoin.Menufy, a provider of online-ordering …

Some 47% of U.S. adults have reported identity theft over the past two years, while the fraud’s toll ballooned to $712.4 billion in 2020, up 42% from 2019, according to a report released Tuesday by Aite Group, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, and sponsored by Giact, an Allen, Texas-based …

Point-of-sale technology provider Handpoint has agreed to adopt the i-Accept technology from MagicCube Inc. The technology allows merchants to accept card transactions on off-the-shelf mobile devices.Citcon, a provider of mobile-wallet acceptance at the point of sale, has agreed to integrate its technology with that of Agilysys Inc., a vendor of point-of-sale technology …

Payments provider Priority Technology Holdings Inc. announced it has agreed to acquire Finxera Holdings Inc., a provider of banking-as-a-service technology. Terms were not announced for the transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter.Mastercard Inc. said it is expanding its Engage platform to digital first deployment, assistance and training through the …

Customer experiences and expectations are rapidly evolving as people and businesses seek out slicker financial apps and services that are embedded deeper into our software applications. This explosion of new experiences is largely enabled through application programming interfaces (APIs). Seeing a new opportunity here, many financial institutions are investing in …