Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The Electronic Check Clearing House Organization (ECCHO), a leader in the movement to develop check image exchange, announced Monday that it is “exploring possible strategic opportunities.” The terms “exploring strategic opportunities” or “exploring strategic options” usually mean a company is up for sale. It is indeed possible that the ECCHO …
Read More »Nearly a Third of Payments Are Cashless at New USAT Client’s Converted Vending Machines
USA Technologies Inc. (USAT), a provider of electronic payments for vending machines and other unattended locations, said Monday that it is working with Ten M. Corp. to upgrade 1,000 of Ten M’s vending machines with USAT’s ePort Connectcashless payment technology. In addition to cash, the ePort devices will enable the machines to …
Read More »Canada, Too, Looks To Make Its Payments System Faster And More Efficient
Payments Canada, operator of three major payment systems in that country, issued a five-point plan Thursday to put Canada on a path toward faster and more efficient electronic payments. The plan has many similarities with efforts by Canada’s southern neighbor to modernize payments, but also some differences, according to a …
Read More »Boosted by Young Adults, U.S. Credit Card Usage Continues Its Comeback
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults now carry a general-purpose credit card, and credit cards are gaining popularity with young adults, according to new consumer survey findings from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. The Maynard, Mass.-based research and consulting firm reported this week that 63% of U.S. consumers have a major-brand credit …
Read More »Survey Finds That Kicking Cash off the Bus Will Be Hard To Do
Despite years of efforts by transit agencies, payments companies and banks to get mass-transit riders to switch to cards or mobile tickets, most riders still prefer to pay fares with cash and regard cash as the most secure payment form, according to new survey results from payment technology provider ACI …
Read More »The Feds Plan To Create a National Bank Charter for Fintech Companies
The U.S. Treasury Dept.’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks, plans to create a special-purpose national bank charter for financial technology companies, a booming field in which payments firms play prominent roles. Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry divulged the planned charter during a speech Friday at …
Read More »Visa’s Deal for CardinalCommerce Comes As Fears Rise Over Online Fraud, False Declines
In a move that expands its business as a provider of risk-control services for merchants and card issuers, Visa Inc. announced Thursday that it has a deal to acquire e-commerce payment-authentication provider CardinalCommerce Corp. Founded in 1999, Mentor, Ohio-based CardinalCommerce’s signature product is Cardinal Secure Authentication, a service that uses …
Read More »The NRF Predicts Holiday Gift Card Spending Will Rise 6% This Year
The National Retail Federation predicts consumers will spend $27.5 billion on gift cards this holiday season, up 5.8% from $26 billion in 2015. The increase follows the 18% plunge last year from $31.7 billion in 2014, which was the highest gift card spending total in at least seven years on NRF surveys. …
Read More »Visa, MasterCard Postpone 2017 Fuel-Pump EMV Liability Shifts for Three Years
Citing the difficulties that gas stations are having in retrofitting fuel pumps to accept EMV chip cards, Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. are postponing their Oct. 1, 2017, EMV liability shift for U.S. automated fuel dispensers (AFDs) until Oct. 1, 2020. Visa announced the postponement in a blog posting early Thursday. The …
Read More »Eye on Security: Madison Square Garden Breached; Should Chip Cards’ Mag Stripes Go?
Sports and entertainment venue operator The Madison Square Garden Co. (MSG) on Tuesday disclosed a nearly year-long breach of payment card information involving customers who bought concessions at five of its venerable properties. And a new study from Federal Reserve researchers makes six recommendations for improving mobile-payments security, one of …
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