Merchant

The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) Consumer Services Division announced this week that it has fined illegal payday lenders more than $280,000 in fines since 2013.

Merchant acquirers can learn a lot from their new competitors about how to stand out in a crowd where everybody appears to be the same.

Mobile payments provider Spindle signed an agreement with Transaction Data USA, a payments industry consulting firm, to expand the sale of its products to merchants.

Retailers are adopting many innovations to counter the lure of online shopping, which is becoming more of a threat to brick-and-mortar stores as e-commerce spreads to a growing number of Internet-connected devices.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced Thursday plans to propose legislation to overhaul the state's data security law while requiring new safeguards for the personal data of consumers.

A Minnesota state senator who filed for bankruptcy was relieved of $840,00 in debt last year, including $613,000 owed to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Global Debt Registry, a debt repository for storing and tracking consumer debt, announced it has secured $7 million in funding. The investment comes on the heels of a landmark year for the company.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Wednesday it is seeking comment on a so-called "safe student account scorecard" that colleges could use to see how banks structure the fees, features and "sales tactics" of financial products to students before forming a partnership.

PayPal is revamping its lineup of mobile point of sale offerings, expanding developer tools and adding EMV in the U.S. But its new support for Microsoft devices may have the most impact as it pursues merchants that can already get payment capabilities elsewhere.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is in talks to buy a minority stake in India's One97 Communications Ltd., owner of an online payments processor, according to people familiar with the matter.