Fintech

SmartFinancial lined up a compelling merger with Entegra. Then a bigger bank offered more money and a higher premium.

Venmo has more than 40 million active users, PayPal has revealed for the first time. This finally gives the market a sense of how popular Venmo is, and sheds a little light on how it compares to the bank-run Zelle service.

Visa Inc. braved a stronger U.S. dollar and a decline in consumer confidence even as its customers’ spending overseas continued to slow during the first three months of the year.

Members of Bard Employees Federal Credit Union approved the merger into Baxter Credit Union earlier this month.

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.

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.

Entegra Financial, which had a deal to be sold to SmartFinancial, has instead agreed to be sold to First Citizens, which offered more money and will pay a breakup fee for the initial deal.

By allowing instant issuance to be executed from the most secure infrastructure available, PCI-CP introduces greater flexibility and protection than older standards, according to Ranjeet Khanna, vice president of financial issuance at Entrust Datacard.

Mastercard is expanding its Girls4Tech education outreach program with new partnerships, and tightening the focus on subjects broadly in demand in the payments industry.

Money managers, which are critical to the success of State Street and Northern Trust, are aggressively moving cash into higher-rate products.