As we begin wrapping up of one our best years here at Aliant, we?ve rounded up some of the biggest new industry stories. Here?s some important reads you need to know about in the world of payment processing and merchant services?for the week of November 13, 2017.

iPhone Owners Can Now Send Money to Friends Using Apple Pay Cash

iPhone users are now able to send money to other people using the Apple Pay Cash feature, which was released in iOS 11.2 Beta. The new person-to-person payment tool adds an Apple Pay Cash card to iOS?s Wallet app, and lets friends, family, and other contacts send and receive funds via the Messages app. Could this be the beginning of the end for Venmo? Read the full article here.

Amazon could be responsible for nearly half of U.S. e-commerce sales in 2017

The online retail space gets scarier and scarier for everyone that isn?t Amazon (or those who own Amazon stock). Amazon will own a bigger piece of e-commerce sales this year, owning about $0.44 out of every e-commerce dollar spent in the U.S., up from $0.38 in 2016, according to new estimates from eMarketer. Amazon is followed distantly by eBay, Apple and Walmart. Read the full article here.

Study: Real-time payment programs rise worldwide

Global adoption of real-time payment programs by financial institutions is picking up speed, according to new research. Read the full article here.

Visa rolls out real-time payments platform in Europe

Visa is to bring its real-time payments platform to market in Europe after experiencing strong growth in other key markets globally. Visa Direct enables person-to-person (P2P), business-to-consumer (B2C), and business-to-business (B2B) payments with funds transfers to recipient accounts taking place within minutes. Read the full article here.