Payments

Toronto-based nanopay Corp. is making MintChip, a digital currency it acquired in 2015 from the Royal Canadian Mint, available to merchants looking for a lower-cost payments channel by leveraging digital cash.

LendUp is seeking to differentiate itself from competitors by making fast loan decisions and designing its customer experience around the mobile phone.

Not content to have Amazon and Walmart steal all the thunder, Target has begun a pilot of a grocery delivery service called “Restock,” with terms that are designed specifically to make its rivals look slower and more expensive.

Chinese tourists visiting Spain will be able to shop at Spanish stores using their Alipay mobile wallets through an agreement between BBVA Group and Ant Financial Services, the Alibaba affiliate that operates Alipay.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will invest another $1 billion to raise its stake in online mall Lazada Group SA to 83 percent, securing control of a fast-growing startup at the vanguard of its Southeast Asian expansion.

Synchrony Financial and Alliance Data Systems are particularly vulnerable to recent shifts in Americans’ shopping habits, according to new research from Moody’s Investors Service.

Another goal of the integration is to encourage more small businesses to convert from paper to electronic payments.

Particularly at risk are service providers with high volumes of automated or customer-initiated debit payments, such as cell phone service providers, utilities, cable companies, insurance, and retailers.

Even with card defaults ticking up slightly, regional banks remain committed to pursuing more credit card business as they look to both diversify their balance sheets and deepen relationships with customers.

For Google and its peers the fine may be the beginning of increased regulatory scrutiny across other digital services within their ecosystems, including payments.

Verifone is focusing more on operating an open platform in which third-party developers and financial partners could build within Verifone point of sale network parameters.

The Westpac keyboard function, which helped support social payments, will be removed from the Apple store in July. The move follows a long dispute between banks and Apple over access to Apple Pay.

Visa Inc. is buying a stake in Swedish payments technology firm Klarna AB and forming a strategic partnership, as both companies aim to expand outside their core markets.

Local payments are included in the e-commerce checkout process, allowing merchants to immediately sell products online to local customers.

Punchh is betting NFC will be widespread, and it hopes to get an edge with clients with a direct connection to Apple Pay, enabling consumers to simultaneously earn and redeem restaurant loyalty program points.

The service only became available to customers around the third week of June, which is much later than the timeline Discover initially laid out for Samsung Pay’s availability.

Banks are making it easier to log in, adding expense trackers and simplifying payments as they try to get corporate clients to use mobile more.

Decision Intelligence uses artificial intelligence iin an attempt to increase the accuracy of real-time approvals of safe transactions and reduce false declines.

The company wants to meet demand for corporate payments globally, especially in emerging markets.

As the company diversifies beyond international tuition payments, it's also looking to diversify transaction options.