Square

Square has expanded its invite-only pilot for CBD products in the U.S. to all of its existing merchant accounts, but is charging a premium.

The major technology companies that have chipped away at incumbent payment businesses face much larger competition from this year’s big processing mergers, but they’ve also bulked up through fundraising and product development.

As incumbent merchant acquirers have gotten larger through massive M&A deals, Stripe has been bulking up as well, including a fresh investment to fuel a cross-border merchant technology stack.

To eke out growth in the mature payments terminal market, Square is taking its newest NFC-enabled hardware to markets outside the U.S. with heavy contactless card penetration, where some merchants are likely to be behind the technology curve.

Square is testing out a new Cash App feature that would enable users to make free stock trades, according to a video outlining the product’s features seen by Bloomberg.

Stripe is joining the throng of providers offering merchant loans based on payment receivables with Stripe Capital, a service for e-commerce companies already using Stripe for payments processing.

Under a state proposal, annual percentage rates would have to be disclosed on nonbank commercial loans of $500,000 or less. Lenders' responses have been mixed depending on their business model.

Square's working to boost its appeal to third-party developers, especially as a growing number of competitors and broader economic challenges loom on the horizon.

The company withdrew an earlier bid to become an ILC after regulators identified problems with its application. It is seeking a Nevada bank charter because it wants to add deposit management services and expand into small-business lending.

Square has launched Square Terminal in Canada in an effort to lure merchants that use myriad iPads, tablets and smartphones to receive payments in stores and remotely.