Acquirers

Jason Oxman is leaving his CEO position at the Electronic Transactions Association to become the president and CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council, a position he will assume in late February.

Square's new card for business owners does something very bold with debit — and very troubling for banks.

Square just found a replacement for high-profile CFO Sarah Friar but is facing another big hole in its leadership team as head of payments Mary Kay Bowman leaves for Visa.

TSYS is responding to growing demand for a lighter and more versatile point of sale with a line of payment tools answering many of the newer merchant needs Square, Clover and Poynt typically provide.

U.S. Bancorp’s Elavon has acquired CenPOS, a B2B payments software provider with a heavy focus on large companies in the automotive, travel and entertainment industries.

Ant Financial, Alibaba’s finance affiliate controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, agreed to buy a stake in the Brazilian payments firm StoneCo Ltd after the company prices its initial public offering, joining Warren Buffett in investing in Brazil’s booming financial-technology startup landscape.

The international payments infrastructure has reached a point where consumers can use their cards in many parts of the world as easily as they can in their own country. But finding retailers who can accept all of these cards is a completely different story.

Square’s growth strategy has always been to aim higher with products and services that benefit larger businesses than the ones it originally targeted with its mobile card reader. Its newest product diverges from that path.

Global Payments hopes to strengthen its position among restaurant merchant acquirers by paying $415 million in cash for food services and software company Sicom Systems.

International e-commerce is booming these days and so too are the opportunities—and challenges—for payments players.