Transaction Processing

Vantiv Inc. shareholders approved the processor’s planned acquisition of London-based merchant acquirer Worldpay Group plc with 99.9% of votes cast in favor, Vantiv reported. The companies expect the merger to close Jan. 16 following approval of a British court. The merged company will be known as Worldpay Inc., and its …

Traditional card-based loyalty programs, like those offered at local grocery stores, car washes, and restaurants, can drive consumer loyalty simply because many people are already familiar with them. But if brands want to improve the depth of the consumer experience, evolving to a digital-based loyalty program can provide consumers with …

The Western Union Co. and the New York Department of Financial Services announced Thursday that the wire-transfer market leader will pay a $60 million fine to settle alleged violations of the state’s anti-money-laundering laws, including transactions that supported human trafficking from China. New York authorities alleged that between 2004 and …

If you ask consultants what’s holding back mobile payments in the United States, you’ll get answers ranging from lack of acceptance ubiquity to malfunctions at the point of sale to consumers’ perceptions that payment cards work just fine. Now the nation’s financial institutions have weighed in on the matter, and …

Suburban Cleveland-based merchant processor Electronic Merchant Systems announced it will move its headquarters to downtown Cleveland in mid-2018. The new location offers about 48,000 square feet of space. Point-of-sale equipment maker Star Micronics released PromoPRNT, a service that enables merchants to create printed promotions in addition to receipts. U.S. Attorney …

A group of California small businesses won a victory Wednesday when a three-judge panel of a federal appellate court upheld their challenge to California’s ban on credit card surcharges, but a key aspect of the ruling applies only to the merchants who sued the state. Still, the ruling represents at …

The automated clearing house network’s nearly uninterrupted growth tear took a breather in the third quarter, the period leading up to the introduction of same-day processing for ACH debit transactions. ACH transactions totaled 5.3 billion in the July through September quarter, according to NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based governing body for …

Unattended-payments specialist USA Technologies Inc. announced that vending-machine operator Jackson Brothers of the South is upgrading an additional 750 machines to accept cashless payments. When completed, the expansion will mean all 1,000 Jackson Brother machines will accept cashless transactions such as Android Pay and Apple Pay in addition to traditional …

Shares of publicly traded payments companies lost some strength as 2017 drew to a close, but for the year as a whole they handily outperformed three widely watched market indexes during one of Wall Street’s best years in recent memory. Twenty-nine electronic transaction processor stocks tracked by Chicago-based investment firm …

Payments provider Clearent LLC announced its acquisition of SPOT Business Systems LLC, an independent software vendor serving the dry-cleaning industry. Terms were not disclosed. Shares of MoneyGram International Inc. dived about 9% Wednesday morning in the wake of Tuesday’s news that China’s Ant Financial Services Group would not be acquiring …