Thursday , April 25, 2024

John Stewart

Starting as an editor on Bank Network News at Faulkner & Gray, John ultimately played a key role in starting, editing, and publishing many of F&G's flagship publications, including Credit Card Management, Card Technology, Card Marketing, and Collections & Credit Risk. Before co-founding Boland Hill Media, John was a group publisher at Thomson Media responsible for a $10 million division embracing magazines, newsletters, and Web sites.

Fit Pay Announces Flip, a Wearable for NFC Transactions Based on Bitcoin

It was probably only a matter of time before someone combined contactless payment, wearable devices, and cryptocurrencies. On Thursday, Fit Pay Inc. announced a device that will let users convert digital currency holdings into fiat currency for transactions at any point of sale capable of contactless interaction using near-field communication. …

Read More »

Consumer Cynicism Climbs in a ‘Runaway Year for Fraudsters,’ a Report Finds

Thanks to the seemingly unending epidemic of data breaches—capped by the huge breach last summer at credit-reporting titan Equifax Inc.—consumers are becoming both more aware and more cynical about the problem, according to research released Tuesday by Javelin Strategy & Research. In the wake of the Equifax case, in which …

Read More »

PayPal Takes a Beating As the Spotlight Shifts to eBay’s Payments Plans With Adyen

When news broke last week that eBay Inc. will begin moving away from its tight embrace of PayPal Holdings Inc. for payment processing, investors immediately punished PayPal’s stock, interpreting the move as a big blow to the company’s business. But the frenzy of PayPal shorting may have overlooked one thing: …

Read More »

With Uncle Sam’s Tax Cut in Place, Visa Expects a $1 Billion Windfall

North America’s largest payments company on Thursday said it expects to receive a $1 billion bonus from the federal tax-reform bill passed into law in December. In contrast with its rival Mastercard Inc., which reported earlier in the day it recorded an $873 million charge in the fourth quarter related …

Read More »

For PayPal, a New Deal Extends Its Link to eBay Even As It Seeks Out Other Marketplaces

PayPal Holdings Inc. on Wednesday said it has reached an agreement with its former owner, eBay Inc., that calls for PayPal to act as a checkout method on eBay for three years beyond the end of the five-year pact that separated eBay and PayPal in 2015. In that three-year period, …

Read More »

Bank-Owned Zelle Puts Venmo’s Millennial Enthusiasts Squarely in Its Cross-Hairs

Payments observers who think Venmo and Square Cash have locked up the Millennial crowd for peer-to-peer payments may have to reconsider. With the new advertising blitz it announced Monday, the bank-owned Zelle service is making it plain it plans to steal its share of this huge consumer market. “The advertising …

Read More »

Facing Popular P2P Rivals, Bank-Owned Zelle Posts Healthy Growth And Revs up Ads

In the hotly contested person-to-person payment business, financial institutions have felt left behind by technology impresarios like PayPal Holdings Inc. and Square Inc. that have entered the market over the past few years with slick P2P apps. But on Monday, the banks’ Zelle network released fresh numbers indicating healthy growth …

Read More »

Bitcoin Transaction Fees Ease off Sharply, But How Long Will the Trend Last?

Long confirmation times and hefty transaction fees have pushed some Bitcoin backers to back away from the digital currency in recent weeks, but now there are signs that one of those problems is easing significantly while the other is growing much worse. The median transaction fee stood at $5.69 as …

Read More »

The Democratization of Bitcoin: An ATM Network Appeals to Average Joes

Bitcoin may have slipped from the near $20,000 price it commanded a little over a month ago, but it’s still selling for around $11,000, nearly a dozen times its value a year ago. That’s drawing in plenty of investors and other high rollers, but it’s also attracting average citizens, including …

Read More »

The PCI Council Announces a Standard for Software-Based PIN Entry

For decades, merchants have had to install specially designed and built devices to allow customers to enter their personal identification numbers for debit card payments. And lately, that has been the case for EMV cards, as well. But on Wednesday, that changed as the PCI Security Standards Council published a …

Read More »
Digital Transactions