June, 2019

• 1 June

  Where Are the Mobile Incentives?

  

  For years now, the payments business has predicted a mass uptake of mobile wallets, and for years the pundits have been disappointed. Activity via services like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay has been notably non-overwhelming, despite backing from these tech giants. Now, another question mark has appeared for …

May, 2019

• 1 May

  Remember That Prepaid Rule?

  

  Talk about an anticlimax. Did anyone really notice that on April 1 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s long-dreaded diktat regulating the prepaid industry finally took effect? We took note of the event, of course, in our daily news service, Digital Transactions News, because that’s our job. But though we bent …

April, 2019

• 1 April

  Our New Look

  

  Yes, the magazine you are holding in your hands is indeed Digital Transactions. I don’t blame you, though, if you thought you had grabbed the wrong magazine. After all, we’ve had the same look since our first issue rolled off the press in January 2004. So anyone who has subscribed …

March, 2019

• 1 March

  The Tech Imperative

  

  When news broke in mid-January that Fiserv Inc. had offered to buy First Data Corp. in an all-stock transaction, we knew instantly we had our cover story. The trouble was, our February issue was already buttoned up, so we knew we’d have to wait for March. As often happens, this …

January, 2019

• 31 January

  On Realism

  

  It was only a matter of time before the payments industry, some of which had succumbed over the years to a flight of fancy over blockchain technology, returned to earth. To be fair, this episode never reached the level of hysteria, nor were enthusiasts entirely wrong in their expectations. The …
• 1 January

  The Ultimate Mobile Payment

  

  It was only a matter of time before the stars lined up to put digital-payment capability into automobiles. After all, where do U.S. consumers spend their time when not at rest? And what has been their favorite pastime, after sports, politics, or videogaming? As senior editor Kevin Woodward explains in …

December, 2018

• 1 December

  Chase Tries Again

  

  One thing that can help put over a new payment technology is backing from a bank or technology company that controls a huge chunk of the consumer universe. But the key word here is “help.” Consumers and merchants have to be ready for the technology, as well. With contactless cards, …

November, 2018

• 1 November

  More Than a Token Effort

  

  The nation’s two big card networks (maybe we should just start calling them payments networks) come in for a fair bit of criticism, particularly from merchants. Much of it is justified. But the fact remains they are pretty good at doing what networks must do: switching a great bulk of …

September, 2018

• 30 September

  You Just Can’t Please Everyone

  

  We were just wrapping up this issue when word came of the proposed $6.24 billion monetary settlement of the big federal antitrust case that has, for more than a decade, pitted merchants against card networks and major banks. The deal, however, only settles the money question—how much merchants will get …
• 2 September

  ILC, FDIC, OCC: When Alphabet Soup Is a Good Thing

  

  At the end of July came an opening for nonbank payments players that, as the old expression goes, you could drive a Mack truck through. And it’s our guess that we’ll be hearing much more about this opening—and about how financial-technology firms and other nonbanks are exploiting it—for quite some …