Thursday , April 25, 2024

Kevin Woodward

Kevin's role at Digital Transactions is to write news and features stories for publication on the Web site and in the magazine. He also oversees the digital editorial aspect of the site and the Digital Transactions News daily newsletter.

‘Alexa, Fill ‘er Up.’ Amazon Pay Coming to Cars Via ExxonMobil and Fiserv

Consumers with Alexa, Amazon.com Inc.’s voice assistant, enabled in their cars and trucks soon will be able to pay for fuel at more than 11,500 Exxon and Mobil gas stations from inside their vehicles. Announced Monday, the service, compatible with vehicles with Alexa built in or enabled with an Echo …

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On the First Day of Christmas Shopping, the Bots Came to Town in Droves

Bots operated by criminals did more than leave lumps of coal for merchants and consumers this holiday shopping season. During Black Friday week, criminals used mobile devices to create new accounts to mimic new customers and initiate transactions through an established and seemingly genuine account, according to LexisNexis Risk Solutions. …

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A Sobering 62% of U.S. Financial-Services Entities Have Been Breached, Thales Says

Despite 96% of U.S. financial-services organizations considering their technology security as adequate, 62% of those responding to a Thales survey said they experienced a breach. That’s according to the recently released 2019 Thales Data Threat Report.  Commissioned by Thales, the survey of 1,200 information technology and data security professionals and …

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Divergent Online Security Needs Warrant a New Version of PKI

A new set of security protocols to better safeguard online connections within the financial-services industry is in the offing. Securing and trusting these connections is a critical piece of the payments infrastructure. Experts say the underlying standards they are built on—called public key infrastructure—need updating. That’s why the Accredited Standards …

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In-Store Holiday Shopping Increases, But Not As Fast as Online Shopping

Online shopping on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, increased 19.6% year-over-year, while in-store shopping that day increased 4.2%, according to Adobe Digital Insights and Fiserv Inc., respectively. Consumers did not disappoint in early holiday shopping results. Adobe Digital Insights, a unit of San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Inc., said consumers …

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Smart Phones in Hand, Consumers Prep for a Busy Holiday Shopping Season

Expect more consumers to wield their smart phones for their holiday shopping this year. Fully 70% of consumers in the Deloitte 2019 Holiday Retail Survey plan to make a holiday purchase using a smart phone. That’s up from 67% in 2018 and from 59% in 2017. A separate Visa Inc. …

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Stepping Further into E-Commerce, PayPal Pays $4 Billion for Honey Shopping Assistant

PayPal Holdings Inc. is betting big on its strategy of boosting its e-commerce presence with its approximately $4 billion acquisition of Honey Science Corp., a technology platform that helps consumers find offers and deals on popular e-commerce sites. Announced Wednesday afternoon, the deal envisions Honey tapping into the more than …

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Eye on Acquiring: Repay’s Card Volume up 40%, and Usio and Net Element Report Earnings

In its first full quarter as a public company, Repay Holdings Corp. said its card-payment volume of $2.6 billion was a 40% increase over the 2018 third quarter. Payments providers Usio Inc. and Net Element Inc. also reported their earnings results. Atlanta-based Repay, which acquired APS Payments and TriSource Solutions …

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Facebook Pay Could Dominate Facebook’s Apps, But That’s Not Likely to Stymie Rival Wallets

With Facebook Inc.’s launch Tuesday of Facebook Pay, the social-media giant may feel somewhat assured that many of its 1.6 billion daily users will at least try the new wallet when making purchases in one of the company’s social networks. But that does not mean the rest of the payments …

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U.S. Holiday Sales Could Top $1 Trillion, With Mobile Payments Growing 32%

Research firm eMarketer Inc. forecasted that 2019 U.S. holiday sales will surpass $1 trillion in value for the first time. Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving, is expected to be the biggest online shopping day and could approach $10 billion in sales. With Thanksgiving falling on the last Thursday of …

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