David Heun

Visa and Billtrust are pressuring businesses to embrace automation by developing a directory of suppliers who accept digital payments.

Synthetic fraud brings the pain from many angles — a fluid mix of fake credentials and phony accounts that can overwhelm traditional identity theft tools.

Western Union and Amazon are collaborating to bring the e-commerce giant's services to consumers who may not currently have access to online shopping or those who prefer not to make digital payments.

If cryptocurrency is ever going to become a viable payment option, it has to have bank-grade security — and bank support.

Bank of America Merchant Services is combining its payment processing and security services with the cloud-based restaurant management software of talech to deliver a new point-of-sale option to restaurants and bars.

Automated payment technology provider Yooz North America is partnering with digital payment provider SnapCheck to help companies speed up accounts payable processes, while cutting operational and fraud costs.

After Rooam's initial launch of its nightlife payment app in its home base of Washington, D.C., the company has agreed to acquire a similar payment app provider to pave the way for its launch in Chicago.

DBS Bank is testing the Foodster bot for order-and-pay at restaurants through Facebook Messenger.

In the U.S., most banks and retailers seemed to have given up on contactless cards with the 2011 demise of the much-publicized Chase Blink brand. But the payment format is making a strong comeback in 2018.

Chinese tourists visiting the U.S. and Canada will be able to use Alipay at HMSHost-operated restaurants in most major airports.

Emphasizing its work with various partners in the payments industry as its key to success, Pivotal Payments says it has changed its brand name to Nuvei.

American Express has positioned itself as a small-business champion for decades, but its partnership with Amazon illustrates the paradox of supporting mom-and-pop shops by enabling them to buy supplies from their largest competitor.

Seeking to bring advanced technology to its managed security services, ControlScan has acquired Dunbar Cybersecurity and its security operations center.

Twilio has secured the services of Stripe as a launch partner to enable businesses to accept payments over the phone through their existing Stripe account. The companies plan to offer Twilio Pay in early 2019.

Worldnet is adding Google Pay to its cloud-hosted platform to address the pressure on payment service providers and independent sales organizations to securely embrace multiple payment channels and computing devices.

Visa is expanding its Visa Token Service commercially with 20 acquirer/gateway partners it feels can immediately add scale for using interoperable Visa tokens in addition to the partners' own as credential-on-file token requestors.

Transaction Network Services has agreed to acquire Australia-based Advam in a move to strengthen the company's services, especially in the unattended payments and e-commerce fields.

Banks using Fiserv technology will have access to an automated accounts receivable solution from DadeSystems that the companies say will improve accuracy and lower costs for business clients.

After three months of testing its cryptocurrency wallet, Plasma Bank has launched PlasmaPay globally with an emphasis on Southeast Asia and South America.

In providing merchants real-time information when American Express cardholders call its customer service to dispute charges, Amex and Ethoca hope to reduce time and money spent handling chargeback disputes.