Transaction Processing

A program launched last year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to let holders of electronic benefit transfer cards spend their benefits online has quickly expanded to 42 states and the District of Columbia, up from just seven states as recently as March, according to Fiserv Inc., which is working …

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 …

Card-brand giant Visa Inc. is joining a payment-information exchange test operated by Nacha, the network operator for the automated clearing house system. Dubbed Phixius, the exchange could expedite the sharing of payment information between payees and payers and can allow for multiple payment types, including ACH, wire, card, and others. …

Payments-industry veterans Con Coughlin and Mackenzie Walsh have formed CardSmart.io, aimed at providing services including portfolio acquisition and merchant funding while working with independent software vendors, independent sales organizations, agents, and resellers.Houston-based P97 Networks Inc. announced it has been chosen by ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. to enable mobile payments at Mobil-branded stations …

With the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating restaurants’ transition to digital payment technology, processors Shift4 Payments Inc. and SpotOn Transact Inc. have beefed up their platforms through deals to add third-party applications.  Allentown, Pa.-based Shift4 has agreed to integrate San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc.’s Uber Eats delivery app to its point-of-sale platform. …

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, …

Helped by a collaboration with Visa Inc., Billtrust’s Business Payments Network recorded a 118% increase in payments volume in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year. BPN enables banks and corporate buyers to send digital payments to suppliers’ acceptance platforms.Capital Bank N.A. said it has upgraded its digital …

Key payment trends now being driven by the Covid-19 pandemic were already gaining a full head of steam much earlier, according to debit card transaction data released early Monday by the Houston-based Pulse electronic funds transfer network. Stay-at-home policies and business closings starting in March drove consumers to spend online and …