David Heun

Digital payments developers have targeted video game platforms and their players as fairly fertile ground for integrating payment methods directly into game consoles or apps, but up to now the misses have outnumbered the hits.

Because the cost of cross-border payments can substantially bite into profit margins for travel agencies, payments technology provider Ixaris and financial service infrastructure developers Banking Circle are partnering to eliminate that expense with virtual bank account numbers.

Mobile point-of-sale provider Lavu has acquired online and mobile ordering platform MenuDrive to aid both restaurant management and online presence — and skip the costs of incorporating third-party services.

Intuit Inc.'s QuickBooks is adding next-day ACH payments to its platform as a faster payments option for small businesses using its business management tools.

PayPal has had an on-again, off-again relationship with eBay since the company split off as a unit of the e-commerce marketplace more than four years ago.

Javier Pérez-Tasso has been named the new CEO of payments messaging standards provider Swift, replacing Gottfried Leibbrandt, who steps down from the post at the end of June.

With Wirecard's value tumbling since a Financial Times report two months ago alleging an accounting scandal in its Asian operations — and a followup Wednesday reporting that half of its revenue comes from "three opaque partner companies" — the German payments processor received a lift from a €900 million ($1 billion U.S.) investment from Japan's SoftBank.

NatWest has started a three-month testing period of a payment card using biometric fingerprint for authorization with 200 customers, saying it is the first such card issued by a U.K. bank.

Norwegian digital payments provider MeaWallet is offering a new payment tokenization solution that delivers Mastercard, Visa and American Express tokenization services through a single connection.

As part of its formal spinoff from consumer lender Affirm, B2B e-commerce platform Resolve is launching automated payments that offer extended net terms for product buyers.