Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Mobile point-of-sale provider FreedomPay said it has signed Sephora USA, a retail chain offering beauty products at more than 500 stores.The total value of consumer credit card rewards globally will rise 15% to $108 billion by 2026 from $92 billion this year, fueled by increasing adoption of cobranded cards issued by merchants, according to …

Boosted by strong growth in its automated clearing house services, credit card acquiring, and other business lines, merchant processor Usio Inc. reported Thursday that its total dollars processed grew 215% in 2021’s fourth quarter from a year earlier and 184% for the full year. San Antonio, Texas-based Usio processed $9.5 …

Buy now, pay later options for consumers continue to grow. Nascent airline Breeze Airways will offer Uplift Inc.’s BNPL option to its travelers and Mastercard Inc. announced several more retailers joined its Mastercard Installments program. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Uplift said it is the exclusive BNPL option for Breeze flights. The service …

Payments-technology provider XTM Inc. said it has added Apple Pay and Google Pay to its U.S. Today mobile wallet. The company says it has rolled out more than 100,000 wallets so far.Payments provider Nuvei Corp. said it will process payments for cryptocurrency by holders of the Ledger hardware wallet. With the agreement, holders can buy crypto …

CloudPay, a provider of employee payment solutions, is partnering with Visa Inc. to enable payroll to be deposited directly to employee debit or credit cards through Visa Direct, Visa Inc.’s real-time payment network The new service is expected to provide employees immediate access to their funds compared to the two …

Underscoring the rising profile of open banking in consumers’ financial lives, Green Dot Corp. early Tuesday said it has completed an integration for its GO2bank mobile banking app with the Plaid Exchange network from Plaid Inc. The move will connect users of Green Dot’s app, launched only in January last …

Payments provider ACI Worldwide Inc. said its data indicate the number of tax payments made via a mobile device has increased 27% over the same time last year, while the dollar value has climbed 40%. Tax payments via credit card are up 13%, and have increased 8% by debit card. Dollar value …

Buy now, pay later specialist Affirm Inc. said its fiscal quarter-to-date financial metrics exceeded its expectations, leading it to revise its financial outlook. Affirm on Feb. 10 had expected its gross merchandise volume to be no more than $3.71 billion, but now says it will be at least that much.Aplazo, a buy …

Having held off for the past two years, the country’s two biggest card networks are preparing revisions to their interchange schedules that at least one research firm says will cost U.S. merchants an estimated $475 million in additional transaction fees. Though Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. have historically revised their …

With consumers starting to dine out again, improving their dining experience through digital ordering and tableside payments solutions is becoming a pressing need for restaurants. Texas Roadhouse has become the latest restaurant chain to take the digital plunge, implementing Ziosk’s Cloud Commerce Platform for digital tableside ordering and payments. The …

E-commerce platform eBay Inc. announced it is launching a digital wallet, its first, to allow sellers to use proceeds from their sales to make purchases or pay for selling expenses.The Western Union Co. has suspended operations in Russia and Belarus in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The move follows decisions by other global …

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact consumer finances and financial habits. On the one hand, since the onset of the pandemic, the bank deposits of American households have been at a record high, partially due to limited spending on entertainment and travel, reduced in-person shopping, and the receipt of …

Bill-payment platform provider PayNearMe Inc. will dramatically expand its merchant network with the addition of Walgreens Co. in an agreement announced Wednesday. The pharmacy chain adds nearly 9,000 Walgreens and Duane Reade locations to PayNearMe’s merchant network, bringing the company’s total to more than 40,000 retail locations. PayNearMe’s platform lets …

Consumer spending in the United States, in terms of February retail sales excluding auto, was up 8.7% over February 2021 and 17.3% over February 2019, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse report, which monitors in-store and online retail sales.President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to work out a common …

Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. will raise interchange rates for online merchants starting next month, while also lowering the rates for some small-merchant categories, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Mastercard’s fee changes alone will result in a net increase of about $330 million yearly, according to the Journal story, …

As Russian armed forces continue their assault on Ukraine, Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., and American Express Co. late Saturday said they are suspending all operations in Russia, following up on actions taken by the networks nearly a week earlier. Meanwhile, reports began to filter out of Russia that at least some …

Block Inc., parent company of Square Inc., has become the latest payments provider to come under the scrutiny of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB, as well as attorneys general from multiple states, have requested information from Block related to how the company handles complaints and disputes from customers …

Buy now, pay later has been around for years, but since the onset of the Covid pandemic it has soared in popularity, attracting heavyweight payments companies, opening new payment avenues for consumers, and drawing the attention of federal regulators. Late Thursday, Splitit Payments Ltd. was the latest practitioner to report …

Visa Inc. will decrease interchange rates by 10% for small businesses accepting consumer credit cards in April, according to a Reuters report. The reduced rates will apply to online and card-present transactions and only to merchants with $250,000 or less in Visa consumer credit volumes, Reuters attributed its information to an …

Despite the economy reopening after the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, e-commerce continues to boom as consumers embrace shopping online from home or via their mobile device.  A recent study from FIS Inc. reveals that e-commerce transaction values in the United States grew 10% in 2021 compared to 2020, …