Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
ATM surcharges rose 4% to an average of $2.88 this year from $2.77 in 2014, while foreign fees increased 3.8% to $1.64 from last year’s $1.58, Bankrate Inc. found in its latest annual study of checking account fees. Together, the two fees total $4.52, another new record and up 3.9% …
Read More »After the Big Liability Shift: What’s Next for EMV?
In the four years since Visa Inc. announced the EMV liability shift would be Oct. 1, 2015, merchants, issuers, processors, and other parties have expended huge efforts to prepare for this day. But the real work—converting millions more merchants, issuing millions more chip cards, and educating merchants and consumers—is in …
Read More »First Data Launches Its IPO With an Offering That Could Value Processor at $17.6 Billion
By John Stewart Payments-processing titan First Data Corp. on Thursday launched its long-awaited effort to go public with an initial offering of stock that would value the company at as much as $17.6 billion and raise as much as $3.2 billion. The IPO could well be the largest seen on …
Read More »Consumers Not Quite so Enamored With Debit Cards as Before, TSYS Study Finds
Debit cards are still Americans’ favorite payment type, but they’re not quite as popular as they were two years ago, according to new survey findings from Total System Services Inc. (TSYS). The payment processor’s fifth annual Consumer Payment Choice Study, which in June surveyed more than 1,000 consumers with at least …
Read More »Merchant Groups Get in Last Licks About EMV Before Liability Shift Sets in Thursday
U.S. merchants and their trade groups have been less than thrilled with how the banks and card networks have managed the EMV rollout, and on Tuesday they got in one last blast before the liability shift occurs two days from now. n In the conference call, Mallory Duncan, senior vice …
Read More »CurrentC’s Pilot Is Under Way, But Users—And Some Clerks—Are in the Dark
By John Stewart At least some consumers in Columbus, Ohio, are using the Merchant Customer Exchange’s CurrentC mobile-payments app, but with little or no advertising so far finding a store cashier who knows about the app and how it works is a hit-or-miss proposition. That’s the finding of a CurrentC …
Read More »Regulators Try To Catch Up With Swiftly Changing Payments Technology
By Jim Daly New York has its new BitLicense and California is actively looking at regulations for virtual currencies, but the organization that promotes uniform state laws is working on a prospective law that would guide regulations for alternative and mobile payments. The Chicago-based Uniform Law Commission (ULC) created its Alternative …
Read More »When “Free, Unlimited, Forever” Turns out To Have Limits, After All
By John Stewart While some startup transaction processors have capitalized lately on the idea of so-called free processing, at least one has now decided to backtrack on that concept. BitPay Inc., an Atlanta-based processor of Bitcoin transactions for merchants, announced Wednesday it is scrapping a plan it introduced only 14 …
Read More »With EMV Looming, a Tool Emerges To Simplify Integrations with POS Systems
Managing the integration of EMV payment acceptance into point-of-system software can be replete with nuances unfamiliar to many developers. That’s where a product announced Tuesday by two payments companies working jointly could assist. Seattle-based independent sales organization Gravity Payments Inc. has teamed with Creditcall Ltd., a United Kingdom-based transaction gateway …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Five Questions Merchants Should Ask About EMV Terminals
By Terry Dooley Deadline: A date or time when something must be finished: the last day, hour, or minute that something will be accepted. The word “deadline” carries with it the implication of pressure—pressure to act or face the consequences. That’s the very word being tossed around when people talk …
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