Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
As Transact 15, the Electronic Transactions Association’s annual conference held this year in San Francisco gets under way, acquiring industry vendors and companies are releasing a bevy of news. Among the vendors making announcements is Clearent LLC, a payment-services company based in Clayton, Mo. Clearent says it will resell CardFlight …
Read More »Consumers Want to Use Apple Pay, But Find Merchant Acceptance Lacking: Survey
It’s a familiar refrain in payments: For consumers to use a payment method there has to be places to use it. Apple Pay, it seems even with all of the hoopla surrounding it, is no different. That’s what a recent report from Phoenix Marketing International, a Rhineback, N.Y.-based firm, …
Read More »PayPal Will Include NFC Capability in the Coming Version of Its Mobile Wallet
After long belittling near-field communication technology by joking that its acronym, NFC, stands for “Not for Commerce,” PayPal Inc. before the end of the year will launch a new version of its mobile wallet featuring the technology. PayPal, which has been working with NFC in Australia, will replace its current …
Read More »Eye on Mobile: Mobile Devices Becoming More of a Retailer Ally in Authenticating Online Consumers
Smart phones may become a strong ally to fraud-plagued e-commerce merchants in helping to verify the location and identity of an online shopper. Online fraud is often committed by criminals who manipulate their computer’s location data and other attributes to make it appear they are who they say they …
Read More »Acculynk’s Mobile Update Brings PIN Authentication to Online EMV Purchases
Merchants looking for a way to secure e-commerce and mobile-commerce transactions made with credit and debit cards have a new option with the debut of an update to Acculynk Inc.’s PaySecure service. The Acculynk technology allows consumers to make PIN-based transactions on their PCs and mobile devices. The Atlanta-based …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Banks Are Responsible for Weak Authentication in Apple Pay Fraud
Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payment system has taken some hits over rumors of rampant fraud. According to some reports, Apple Pay fraud is 60% higher than mag-stripe credit card fraud. And now, with the announcement two weeks ago of the Apple Watch and its support of Apple Pay, there is …
Read More »As P2P’s Popularity Shoots Upward, Facebook Enters the Game With Messenger
The viral popularity of peer-to-peer payments among younger consumers hasn’t gone unnoticed at the massive social networks that serve their needs for instant communication. Facebook Inc. on Tuesday said it has introduced a P2P payments service on its Messenger platform and will be rolling it out across the country “over …
Read More »More Than 70% of Small Merchants Are Unaware of EMV Liability Shift, Survey Finds
By Jim Daly Another sign that the U.S. EMV conversion has a long way to go emerged last week when a survey of more than 990 independent business owners by Newtek Business Services Inc. revealed that 71% of respondents were unaware of the so-called EMV liability shift coming on Oct. …
Read More »COMMENTARY: The Mobile Wallet Fallacy: How the Wrong Metaphor Led Us Astray
Familiar is easier than unfamiliar. This basic truth explains much misspent effort in the payments world. Wallets are familiar. We all have them. So as it became clear that the physical part of payments—cash, checks, plastic cards—would at some point disappear, it was natural to carry the idea of a …
Read More »Costco’s Post-AmEx Credit Card Plans Include Visa but Exclude MasterCard
By Jim Daly The big warehouse retailer Costco Wholesale Corp. announced Monday an agreement with Citigroup Inc. to replace its current cobranded card from American Express Co. next April with a Citi-issued Visa credit card. But Costco also announced a companion agreement with Visa Inc. under which other Visa-branded credit …
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