Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Funding activity for startups in the payments business continued at a hectic pace over the past six months—but the total dollars invested fell through the floor. There were 75 funding deals in the first quarter totaling $396 million, according to the latest data from CB Insights, a New York City-based …
Read More »Eye on EMV: Terminal Hiccups, Petroleum’s Challenge, And a Dual-Interface Future
Of the challenges presented by the U.S. payments systems’ transition to the EMV chip card standard, one of the least reported is confusion among both consumers and merchants caused by the sudden appearance of puzzling terminal messages. Meanwhile, new numbers indicate petroleum marketers face a daunting challenge meeting their October …
Read More »How EMV-Related Chargebacks Drove Florida Merchant Duo to Sue Networks And Issuers
The Florida merchants that sued all the major card networks and eight of the 10 largest bank issuers last month saw no other way to deal with the flood of chargebacks they incurred after the EMV liability shift, according to a top executive with one of the merchants and an …
Read More »After Years of Retreat, Payments Fraud Has Come Roaring Back, AFP Survey Shows
For years, the wave of fraud receded like an outgoing tide for companies that accepted electronic payments from consumers and other businesses. But last year, a tidal wave crashed on shore. Fully 73% of companies reported they had suffered actual or attempted payments fraud in 2015, up 11 percentage points …
Read More »A Smoother Experience, Coupled With Rising Online Fraud, Sparks Interest in 3-D Secure
Once widely disparaged as an unwieldy fraud solution, 3-D Secure is back on the radar screens of risk managers at major online merchants and card issuers. Improvements in the 15-year-old technology, combined with surging e-commerce fraud, are driving the renewed interest, experts say. “Two-and-a-half years ago, zero U.S. online merchants …
Read More »Durbin’s Debit Law Is Eyed As Part of a Sweeping Financial Regulatory Review
Not yet five years after its implementation, a controversial federal regulation governing interchange and transaction routing for debit cards has come under review as part of a process set out by a 20-year-old law called the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act. The debit card regulation, the Federal …
Read More »As the Risk of Online Fraud Rises, the Air-Travel Industry Wrestles With 3-D Secure
By John Stewart These days, the airline and air-travel industry finds itself squeezed between two imperatives that have come into sharp focus in recent months. With high average tickets, airlines must guard against fraud at a time when the spread of EMV chip cards is pushing more criminals into …
Read More »Aided by Mobile Tech And Social Media, Digital Payments Are Surging Globally
While the U.S. market wrestles with its nearly 6-month-long transition to EMV chip cards and contactless payments based on near-field communication (NFC) technology, the rest of the world is surging ahead with contactless, online, and mobile transactions, according to the latest report from Juniper Research. Total digital payments worldwide will …
Read More »A Dearth of Referrals Should Prompt ISOs to Rethink Merchant Approach, Expert Says
Most businesses thrive on referrals from existing clients, but acquirers and independent sales organizations get a surprisingly paltry number of referrals from the merchants they process for. In fact, fewer than 1% of merchants refer other merchants to their transaction servicer, even in the face of rewards such as …
Read More »Vantiv Exec Warns About E-Commerce Declines As EMV Cards Proliferate
The U.S. payments industry’s transition to EMV chip cards has produced a number of side issues, but few may be more pressing for card-not-present merchants than the failed authorizations caused by the ongoing replacement of as many as 1.6 billion credit and debit cards. The new EMV cards carry …
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