“Discover Financial Services will soon give U.S. merchants the option to accept payments from shoppers’ bank accounts—no card needed. The card company is partnering with fintech firm Buy It Mobility Networks Inc., whose technology allows consumers to pay directly from their checking accounts using merchants’ apps. The companies are expected to announce the partnership later this week.”

“Discover Global Network, the payments brand of Discover, and EVO Payments (“EVO”), a leading global provider of payment technology integrations and acquiring solutions, announced an agreement that will allow EVO merchants in the UK and Ireland to process Discover, Diners Club International and affiliate card networks.”

“China UnionPay will issue debit and credit cards in Europe from this month as its eyes global expansion to compete with Mastercard and Visa. The state-controlled Chinese firm teamed up with Tribe Payments, a UK-based back-office technology start-up. This partnership also allows banks to offer branded cards to customers.”

“Merchant processor Priority Technology Holdings Inc.’s fourth-quarter revenues fell by $19.5 million, a drop of 16.5%, in the face of a new Mastercard Inc. rule change tightening consumer notices on subscription billings. “This decline was being driven by one factor and one factor only,” Priority chairman and chief executive Thomas C. Priore said Thursday morning in reference to the rule change. Online subscription billers have been a significant merchant segment for Alpharetta, Ga.-based Priority, but Priore said the company closed the accounts of 1,200 such merchants to assure that it would be in compliance with Mastercard’s rules.”

“UATP – the airline-owned payment network – and Chase, are making it easier for airlines to accept Chase Pay as a payment and checkout option in their own apps and websites, by enabling a network-wide connection. Chase is the leading card issuer in the country and has relationships with half of all households in the U.S.”

“European Union regulators said Tuesday that Mastercard Inc.MA 4.37% and Visa Inc. have agreed to lower the fees assessed to merchants when they accept debit or credit cards issued outside the region, a move that comes after merchants alleged that networks and banks colluded to inflate those fees.”

“Dollar volume in Discover Financial Services’s Payment Services unit rose 19% in the first quarter to $56.1 billion, led by a resurgent Pulse debit network where volume jumped 20%. Pulse, one of the nation’s largest electronic funds transfer networks, has been rebounding in recent quarters have a long period of decline following the loss of a major customer and competition for merchants’ point-of-sale debit transactions in the wake of the Durbin Amendment, which upended the U.S. debit market.”