Near-Field Communication (NFC)

With consumers and small-business owners long accustomed to mobile phones, Square is counting on that familiarity to make its new Square Handheld device an easier-to-use point-of-sale device. Calling Square Handheld, which is roughly the size of a smart phone though thicker, its most powerful and portable POS device ever, Square …

Some 41% of Americans think their finances will stay the same in the next 12 months, while 38% say their situation will get better, according to a survey by Discover Personal Loans, a unit of Discover Financial Services. But 20% expect to be worse off. The survey, conducted by Morning Consult, …

Samsung Electronics America announced early Tuesday it is rolling out a new peer-to-peer payments capability for its digital wallets in the United States. Called Tap to Transfer, the new feature will enable Samsung wallet users to send money to one another by tapping their phones. Samsung wallet users can send …

PayPal Holdings Inc. said it will work with TerraPay to let PayPal users make real-time money transfers throughout the Middle East and Africa. Cantaloupe Inc., a payments provider for self-service markets and vending, launched Go Micro, a compact kiosk for micro markets that features an integrated barcode scanner and 5-inch touchscreen. …

Block Inc. has been ordered to pay a $40-million fine to the state of New York for what the state’s regulator on Thursday called “significant failures in its Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering compliance program, which violated the [New York Department of Financial Services’ money transmitter and virtual currency regulations.”  The …

Stride Bank N.A. announced it will issue the Affirm Card, a debit card from buy now, pay later platform Affirm Holdings Inc., becoming Affirm’s latest issuing partner. Affirm says it had 1.7 million active cardholders as of Dec. 31, 2024. Payfave Inc., which does business as Wink, announced it has merged …

With an eye on small merchants, payment processor NMI on Thursday announced a tap-to-pay feature driven by Mastercard Inc.’s Cloud Commerce app for Android smart phones or tablets. The service will enable Android-using small and mid-size businesses to accept electronic payments without adding new hardware, Schaumburg, Ill.-based NMI says. NMI-connected …

President Trump issued an executive order requiring a move to electronic processing for all federal payments and receipts “by digitizing payments to the extent permissible under applicable law.” The order specifically rules out the creation of a central bank digital currency. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an interim rule that removes the requirement …

Visa Inc. introduced its scam-disruption practice, aimed at identifying and preventing scams “as they emerge,” the company says. Just 26% of credit card holders are “satisfied” with their cards, while 24% are “dissatisfied” and 50% are “indifferent,” according to a survey of 8,000 cardholders age 18 to 45, plus 200 senior …

Ten years ago, the U.S. payment card market made its shift to EMV chip cards, and along with that the industry prepared for more contactless payments. That work by issuers and card brands appears to have paid off because 92% of consumers are now familiar with NFC, the technology that …