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The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web. Today: PGA suffers ransomware attack; U.K. consumers don't always know where payments fraud comes from; Apple Pay's usage jumps; Wearables go to beach volleyball; Intuit earns a payment patent.

The U.S. companies agreed to reduce the average annual interchange rate in Canada by 10 basis points to 1.4 percent on cardThe new rate takes effect in 2020 and runs for five years. The government estimated that small and medium-sized businesses could save C$25,000 over the period.

While using a cryptocurrency as a means of payment instead of an investment may not be unique, most are challenged in environments that require speed, security and the need to work around cash or payment cards. Dash attempts to differentiate from competitive cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, by addressing those concerns.

Ethereum has also suffered from scalability issues since its inception and is capable of handling just 14 transactions per second, compared to Visa’s 24,000 per second, causing network congestion, writes Fran Strajnar, CEO of Brave New Coin.

Readers opine on prospects for the midterm elections, respond to Facebook's forays into collecting bank data, weigh in on new overdraft legislation and more.

Good old-fashioned commercial credit analysts are a dying breed, David Nicholson says. Community banks need them to stay competitive in C&I, but training courses have been cut back. So he’s on a mission to teach as many students as he can.

Credit unions urged to review expense and reimbursement policies, and board oversight of top executives.

Huntington Bancshares is acquiring Hutchinson Shockey as both look to broaden their public finance reach.

The bank's $7 million over four years toward the initiative is its largest overseas philanthropic commitment.

The Chicago-based Hutchinson, Shockey, Erley & Co. focuses exclusively on municipal securities.