Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Amazon.com Inc. on Tuesday said it will jump into the digital-currency market with Amazon Coins, a payment product it will roll out in May on for its popular tablet, the Kindle Fire. Users of the device will be able to redeem the new currency on the Amazon Appstore, which …
Read More »Visa Offers a ‘Generic, Unbranded’ AID to Make EMV Durbin-Compliant
Visa Inc. on Monday became the latest payments network to offer the U.S. debit industry a solution for the problem of how to route EMV debit transactions in compliance with federal law. The proposal comes after debit networks on Thursday spurned a solution that MasterCard Inc. floated two weeks …
Read More »Eye on Earnings: Green Dot’s Wal-Mart ‘Challenges;’ Debit to Slow for MasterCard
The good news for prepaid card program manager Green Dot Corp. in the fourth quarter: purchase volumes, revenues, and active cards all increased. The bad news: American Express Co.’s new Bluebird prepaid card now being sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s U.S. stores is taking some business from Green Dot’s own …
Read More »In an Open Letter, Debit Networks Reject MasterCard’s EMV-Durbin Solution
It took less than two weeks for the Secure Remote Payment Council (SRPc), a consortium of U.S. electronic funds transfer networks, to reject MasterCard Inc.’s offer for EFT networks to use its proprietary Maestro application identifier (AID) to allow processors to route EMV debit transactions according to network choices …
Read More »Eye on Acquisitions: ACI Snags Online Resources; FIS Swallows mFoundry
Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, will go down as one of the payments industry’s more notable days of the deal. First, payments-software developer ACI Worldwide Inc. announced plans to buy Online Resources Corp. in a deal that values the electronic bill-payment and presentment technology provider at $263 million. Then the big processor …
Read More »Entering the Faster P2P Fray, Co-Op Launches Sprig, a Wallet App for Credit Unions
The effort to bring near-real-time person-to-person payments to the customers of smaller financial institutions took another step on Wednesday with the announcement the Sprig digital-wallet service from Co-Op Financial Services, a processor and network operator that links some 3,000 credit unions. The new service, available for both mobile devices …
Read More »First Data Names Labry As Interim CEO, Reports Mixed Quarterly Results
First Data Corp. late on Monday named Ed Labry, president of the big processor’s North American unit, as interim chief executive officer to replace current chief executive Jonathan J. Judge, who is retiring early for health reasons. The announcement came less than a day before First Data announced mixed fourth-quarter …
Read More »Casting a Shadow on Social Commerce, Payvment Shuts Down, Sells Itself to Intuit
Intuit Inc. on Monday acquired the assets of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Payvment Inc., a 3-year-old vendor of shopping-cart and payment tools for merchants operating on social networks. Terms of the deal, which capped a series of developments that for some observers cast doubt on the market for so-called social …
Read More »NACHA’s Bill-Pay Council Puts the Finishing Touches on Its QR-Code Guidelines
Mobile bill payments took a step forward Thursday when automated clearing house network overseer NACHA reported that its Council for Electronic Billing and Payment (CEBP) had developed final guidelines for consumers to use Quick Response (QR) codes on bills to facilitate electronic payments. The guidelines are voluntary for billers, banks …
Read More »Forecasters Predict Credit Card Surcharges Will Find Few Takers Come Jan. 27
The surcharging provisions of the credit card interchange settlement announced last July will take effect on Sunday, but observers expect few merchants will take advantage of their new-found freedom to add a surcharge to Visa and MasterCard credit card sales. “I know of nobody” who plans to surcharge, says Mitch …
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