Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Sparing merchants card-acceptance fees is the fuel that has propelled alternative payments options, such as account-to-account transactions. One startup benefitting from this trend is London-based Sway Money Ltd., which enables merchants to accept account-to-account payments using a QR code and an off-the-shelf mobile device. Sway, which was incorporated in December …

Payment orchestration has entered a new phase, evolving from a gateway or regional solution to include sophisticated global capabilities and services. This unlocks a set of powerful capabilities that allow businesses to customize on a global scale, turning on and off services by region, product, and sales channel, increasing authorization …

Small businesses in Canada will reap lower interchange rates in that country, the Department of Finance Canada announced Thursday. The deal suggests a similar reduction is possible in the United States, the Merchant Payments Coalition quickly responded. Both Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc. agreed to lower the domestic consumer credit …

Fifth Third Bancorp said it has closed on its acquisition of Big Data LLC, a technology platform for health-care payments. Terms were not disclosed Mark Barnett, president of Mastercard Inc. for Europe, said card interchange “represents incredibly good value” with respect to “sharing the costs and benefits of the payment system.” The remarks …

Merchants’ price for accepting credit cards has remained steady for years, according to data released Monday by the Electronic Payments Coalition, an advocacy group representing the payment card industry. The EPC’s release comes as widespread and longstanding merchant complaints about the cost of card acceptance have sparked efforts by federal …

Amazon.com Inc. has beefed up the rewards for its Visa-branded cards issued by Chase, in response to cardholder’s desire for travel-related perks and the ability to earn more rewards for day-to-day expenses, such as commuting. Additionally, Amazon is allowing cardholders to redeem rewards daily and has rebranded its cards. Prime …

The official launch of FedNow as a commercial service is set for July, but already the nation’s banking regulator, along with observers, have seen a pattern in where initial participants have been using the real-time payments service. “We’re starting to see more activity around business-to-consumer [payments], related to payroll front …

Visa Inc. is poised to lower on Saturday the amount a merchant can surcharge for transactions on its credit cards from a maximum of 4% to 3%, a move it announced early this year. Some observers acknowledge the reduction will happen, though Visa Inc. has not responded to Digital Transactions …

In a major case whose effects could ripple widely across the payments industry, Block Inc. has sued Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc., alleging the global networks worked together to fix interchange fees paid by Block’s Square operation. Square, which processes card transactions for millions of mostly small sellers, pays interchange …

Payment processing platform CardX is making Mastercard Click to Pay available on Lightbox, its online payment form, to all existing and new card-not-present merchants on its platform. Mastercard Click to Pay stores a consumer’s payment information using an encrypted, virtual card number to enable secure online shopping. Lightbox enables consumers …

FedNow, the impending real-time payment service from the Federal Reserve, was formally introduced to the merchant-acquiring industry Thursday at the annual Northeast Acquirers Association conference. Expected to launch in July, FedNow will enable participating banks to offer instant payments with a default limit of $100,000 per transaction and stretch to …

Early Warning Services LLC, a fintech owned by seven of the nation’s largest banks, will launch its digital wallet with a pilot this summer followed by general availability in the fall, the top official in charge of the project said Monday. The new wallet, called Paze and aimed exclusively at …

Visa Inc. may be readying a lower cap on credit card surcharges—moving from 4% to 3%—in April, but there’s no guarantee it will happen then. While a bulletin sent to large acquirers says the change to the brand rules will go into effect April 15, its implementation could be delayed, …

As industry lobbyists prepare to converge on Capitol Hill next week, payments interest groups are issuing salvos designed to move the argument over limits on credit card acceptance costs in their favor. One such advance move came Thursday with an email campaign launched by the Electronic Payments Coalition citing a …

Buy now, pay later provider Klarna AB said its 2022 loss of 10.47 billion krona ($1 billion) grew on its 2021 loss of 7.1 billion krona ($680 million). This comes amid growth in 2022. The United States became Klarna’s largest market in December. Also, Klarna will begin collecting late fees from United Kingdom consumers who miss a payment, …

Georgia has joined a small but growing number of states that have introduced legislation to ban the portion of credit and debit card transaction fees that apply to sales tax. The Georgia bill, introduced late last week by Georgia state senator Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro), proposes prohibiting the fees from being …

Merchant satisfaction with payment processors has dwindled in the past year, as sellers cope with the impact of inflation on their processing costs as well as on their business in general, according to J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Merchant Services Satisfaction Study. The merchant satisfaction score for merchant-services providers totaled 853, …

Despite consumer concerns over higher prices caused by inflation, spending for the holiday shopping season got off to a strong start over the weekend. Total retail sales in the United States, including in-store and e-commerce transactions but excluding the automotive sector, were up more than 12% on Black Friday from …

A prominent merchant trade group on Thursday began running a TV commercial that uses Visa Inc.’s sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup to decry credit card acceptance fees and advocate for a bill backed by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., that would regulate those costs. The 30-second commercial, which lays heavy …

As one who has spent an entire career working with community banks, credit unions, and merchants, I can say it’s abundantly clear how they all suffer from a broken payments system, with the Fed’s automated clearing house being the lone exception. While merchants and community banks don’t share the same …