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British online payments company Optimal Payments has acquired Canadian mobile platform developer FANS Entertainment for about $13 million.

The use of e-commerce payments technology as a portal to other business services is advancing rapidly, requiring point of sale companies to constantly add new tools that merchants and developers can use to add muscle to transaction venues.

U.S. acquirers are looking to expand their business in emerging markets, where small merchants are starting to enter the commercial framework.

PayPal's plan to expand its OneTouch instant checkout service has shifted into high gear via an update that will support all merchants using the e-commerce platform Bigcommerce.

A year after initialing establishing a presence in Australia with its mobile card reader, Square Inc. says it will open its fourth "global hub" in Melbourne to expand uptake of its Register tablet-based point of sale system.

Mobile wallets and digital currencies are providing an increasingly viable alternative to traditional card payments, prompting Visa Inc. to present a new value proposition to merchants.

WePay has pushed its tools for international e-commerce payments primarily to U.S.-based companies, and the vendor is now looking to extend its reach abroad through a fresh infusion of funds.

American Express estimates that about 750,000 merchants do business in Canada, and the card brand is relying on its successful OptBlue program to attract as many of them as possible.

Alternative payment systems like Visa Checkout promise to reduce cart abandonment compared to the more drawn-out process of typing in credit card and shipping information. According to recent figures from Visa Inc., Visa Checkout is delivering on that promise.

If Verifone wants to benefit from the major card brands' efforts to operate in China, it must confront a virtual army of independent sales organizations already selling low-cost payment terminals.

Payments startup iZettle AB, a Swedish rival to Jack Dorsey's Square Inc., will start selling a credit-card reader that lets shoppers pay by tapping the device with a smartphone or bank card.

E-commerce is just a sliver of the Polish payments market, but that's likely to change quickly, and Raiffeisen Polbank is partnering with EVO Payments International to form a new company to compete for merchant clients as development cycles shorten.

Google's reported efforts to launch a buy button within mobile search results—and only mobile search results—is the latest sign that traditional e-commerce processes may not survive the transition to mobile devices.

While U.S. banks and clearing houses contemplate how to convert the country's payments system into near real-time, Taulia has made strides by offering a dynamic discounting option to encourage clients to use its technology for B2B payments.

Southern Refreshments is updating its fleet of Georgia vending machines to include cashless options and mobile Near Field Communication (NFC) readers, a move that it hopes can boost spending.

Julie Sizer has been named chief bank operations officer at First Citizens Bank in Raleigh, N.C.

The Payment Card Industry security standards council's PCI 3.0 revision, revealed in January, adds requirements that take effect at the end of June, putting unprepared merchants at risk of fines if they suffer a breach.

Walgreens' vision for creating a patient-centered pharmacy combines mobile health care, digital health technologies and its Balance Rewards prepaid and loyalty system.

While Apple's taking an early incremental approach to Las Vegas, terminal manufacturer Ingenico is very bullish on the technology picking up steam with the gaming industry and its patrons.

"Big data" has been all the rage in the payments industry in recent years. While the hype seems to have subsided a bit, that might be because the most dedicated data-using merchants have put their heads down to focus on sifting through the data to investigate fraud.