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Green Dot Corp.’s stock fell 8% Tuesday morning after the prepaid card services provider reported Monday that it had extended its agreement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to issue and manage the Walmart MoneyCard only until Dec. 31, 2015. In the view of investors, the short extension of a five-year agreement …
Read More »CorFire Acquisition Bolsters Mozido’s M-Commerce Presence at Home and Abroad
Mobile-payments platform developer Mozido Inc. expanded its footprint in the budding industry sector with its announcement Thursday that it acquired a majority interest in CorFire, a U.S. m-commerce subsidiary of South Korea-based information-technology provider SK C&C. Mozido already provides the MoTeaf white-label payments platform as well as various person-to-person, bill-payment, …
Read More »Digital River Re-Ups With Microsoft, Removing a Cloud Over Its Planned Buy-Out
Investors in Digital River Inc.’s stock reacted with exultation Wednesday morning when the gateway and e-commerce services provider disclosed that Microsoft Corp., its biggest customer, had renewed an agreement under which Digital River hosts the Microsoft Store online site. Not only has Digital River retained a client that accounts for …
Read More »EMV Continues Lifting VeriFone as the Terminal Maker Preps for the ‘Year of Product’
Point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc. saw a nearly 20% increase in its fourth-quarter North American revenues as U.S. merchants continued to prepare for Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card acceptance. Looking forward, the company is getting ready to introduce major new products in fiscal 2015, a year chief executive Paul Galant …
Read More »House Report Criticizes the FDIC’s Alleged Attempts To Shut Out Disfavored Merchants
A U.S. House of Representatives committee released a report this week blasting the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for its role in Operation Choke Point, a federal-government effort to deny payment-processing services to merchants intent on defrauding consumers. The report is one more nail in what appears to be a coffin …
Read More »Discover Forecasts $35 Million in 2015 EMV Costs and Is ‘Open for Business’ in Mobile Payments
Discover Financial Services expects to incur $35 million in incremental costs next year for Europay-MasterCard-Visa chip card issuance and acceptance, chief executive David W. Nelms said Wednesday. Nelms also said Discover will be an active player in mobile payments. Nelms made his remarks at an investor conference sponsored by The …
Read More »The FIDO Alliance Releases Version 1 of Its Post-Password Online Authentication Standard
The Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) Alliance, a non-profit with more than 150 members in banking, payments, technology, and other industries, on Tuesday published its first standard for a better system of online authentication than the common but vulnerable user name and password. “Today, we celebrate an achievement that will define …
Read More »Digital River’s Stock Craters on Fears of the Company Losing Microsoft’s Online Store
Gateway and e-commerce services provider Digital River Inc. on Monday joined some other payments companies that have experienced the wrath, or panic, of investors on news that their relationship with their largest customer was threatened. Shares of Minnetonka, Minn.-based Digital River plunged 22.7%, falling $5.80 to close at $19.71, after …
Read More »Commentators Want New York’s BitLicense To Be Clear and Ensure a Level Playing Field
More than 3,700 individuals, groups, and companies have submitted comments regarding New York State’s novel proposal to regulate virtual currencies. A Digital Transactions News sampling of comments from payments organizations about the so-called “BitLicense” shows they want more clarity in definitions and exemptions from some proposed licensing requirements. New York’s …
Read More »Bitcoin Acceptance: Growing Fast, but Still a Niche for Merchant Acquirers
Once perceived as a payment method for drug dealers and shady merchants craving anonymity, the Bitcoin virtual currency is now accepted at approximately 75,000 merchants worldwide, and their numbers are growing fast, according to a new report by First Annapolis Consulting Inc. Even so, it will be a while before …
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