Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
By John Stewart Thursday’s surprise announcement by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that the retailing titan will roll out its own mobile-payment service next year raises questions about its commitment to Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX), the mobile-wallet consortium that Wal-Mart helped launch three years ago. Starting this month, Wal-Mart will begin …
December, 2015
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9 December
Working with Card Issuers, Tender Armor Offers an Anti-Fraud Tool for E-Commerce
Newly launched Tender Armor hopes its CvvPlus product can help issuers, merchants, and consumers combat the risk from fraudulent card-not-present transactions, the company announced Wednesday. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company says CvvPlus can help stem online fraud by providing a daily card verification code that is not printed on a …
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9 December
A Peek at One Processor’s Early EMV and Mobile Transactions Yields Some Surprises
An analysis of recent credit and debit card transaction data by credit-union services organization The Members Group gives some interesting insights about the penetration of two new payment channels in the U.S.—EMV chip cards and mobile payments. For example, EMV transactions amounted to 26% of all transactions that TMG processed over …
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8 December
COMMENTARY: Time for the ISO Business To Stop Talking And Start Acting
By Steve Norell I started in the acquiring industry approximately 20 years ago, and during those 20 years have seen and heard just about everything one can imagine about the way our products and services are marketed. That’s especially true when it comes to deceptive and fraudulent practices. During those …
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8 December
With a Peak Performance in 2015, Merchant-Acquiring Stocks Look to a Sustainable 2016: Report
Publicly-held merchant acquirers were the best-performing payments stocks of 2015, investment-advisory firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods says in its “2016 Outlook: Pay for Growth in This Environment” report released Tuesday. Among the acquirers and processors KBW tracks are PayPal Holdings Inc., Global Payments Inc., Vantiv Inc., Heartland Payment Systems …
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8 December
Retailers, Bankers on Opposite Sides as House Panel Considers Data-Security Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee on Tuesday afternoon was scheduled to consider a data-security bill that is drawing fire from merchant trade groups and consumer advocates, but which has the support of the American Bankers Association. H.R. 2205, the Data Security Act of 2015, was introduced last …
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7 December
Rising Consumer Affinity for Subscription Billing Could Boost Payments Companies
Changes in consumer shopping behavior and new ways for companies to measure how they deliver a service are providing a boost in subscription billing, especially as cloud-based services become more mainstream. “The size of the subscription-billing service market is exploding with the advent of cloud-billing solutions being offered as a …
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4 December
Florida Lawmakers Hope To Add Octane to Lottery Sales Through Fuel-Pump Purchases
Point-of-sale terminals and fuel pumps as lottery-ticket dispensers? That’s a question some states continue to mull, though Minnesota tried it and didn’t like it. The latest state trying to juice lottery sales by making card payments easier is Florida. Bills introduced last month in the state House and Senate would allow …
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4 December
The ACH Continues to Sizzle, Racking up Nearly 6% Growth in the Third Quarter
By John Stewart It operates so much in the background that many payments professionals may not have noticed, but the automated clearing house network is on a hot streak. The 41-year-old system notched a 5.9% year-over-year increase in transactions in the quarter ended Sept. 30, reaching a total of 4.83 …
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3 December
Groceries, Drug Stores, C-Stores Yawn at Mobile Payments, Focus on E-Commerce
By John Stewart What kind of technology are grocery stores, drug stores, and convenience stores most interested in? Not mobile payments, at least not right now. That’s the conclusion of the Los Angeles-based Center for Advancing Retail & Technology LLC, which operates an online marketplace of retail solutions for merchants …