Sunday , December 21, 2025

Kevin Woodward

Kevin's role at Digital Transactions is to write news and features stories for publication on the Web site and in the magazine. He also oversees the digital editorial aspect of the site and the Digital Transactions News daily newsletter.

A ThreatMark Tool Gives Consumers a Role in Identifying Scams

As scams and fraud continue to wreak havoc on consumers and financial services companies, one fraud-prevention firm has released a service it says will help consumers better self-identify potential deceptive payment decisions. ThreatMark released ScamFlag, a service banks can add to their mobile-banking apps to help give consumers more insight …

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How Barry McCarthy Is Steering Deluxe Into Digital Payments

At the helm of Deluxe Corp. since 2018, Barry McCarthy is seeing a payoff from the company’s shift from paper-based to electronic payments. Minneapolis-based Deluxe, which posted $2.1 billion in 2024 revenue, has seen its percentage of overall revenue attributed to its payments services, which includes merchant services and business-to-business …

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AI Engine Perplexity Adds PayPal to Its Commerce Suite

Artificial intelligence engine Perplexity.AI will soon enable PayPal and Venmo payments for products, travel, and tickets that are found via its tool. Announced Wednesday by PayPal Holding Inc., the service will be enabled this summer for U.S. subscribers to Perplexity Pro, which is $20 per month. This is the second …

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Square Marks New Handheld POS Device and Release Schedule

With consumers and small-business owners long accustomed to mobile phones, Square is counting on that familiarity to make its new Square Handheld device an easier-to-use point-of-sale device. Calling Square Handheld, which is roughly the size of a smart phone though thicker, its most powerful and portable POS device ever, Square …

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Eye on AI: SpotOn’s AI Tool to Debut; AI Ransomware’s Future

As artificial-intelligence services become more commonplace, their impact on the payments industry, both good and bad, is becoming clear. As a tool to help merchants, AI services can help with a variety of tasks, something restaurant point-of-sale specialist SpotOn Transact LLC will be counting on as it launches its AI-powered …

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The CFPB Scales Back Its BNPL Enforcement

Amid a general relaxation of financial-enforcement actions under the Trump administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it no longer will prioritize enforcement of buy now, pay later products as if they were credit card products. Announced Tuesday, the change reverses a CFPB position from a year ago that maintains …

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Consumers Are Trimming Their Spending, Fiserv Small Business Index Finds

Small businesses experienced a single boost in April from March, according to the Fiserv Small Business Index. The metric increased from 150 in March to 151 in April, Fiserv Inc. says, reflecting activity from small businesses providing more essential services. Consumers, however, have pulled back on their discretionary spending. “Small …

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Walmart’s Pay by Bank Project Remains on Track for 2025

A test this past September of a real-time pay by bank payments option inside the Walmart app indicates the service is on track for a broader debut in 2025, Digital Transactions News has learned. Speaking at the Nacha Smarter Faster Payments 2025 conference in New Orleans, Sarah Arnio, Walmart Inc. …

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The Request for Payment’s Promise for Real-Time Payments

Request for payment on the RTP network from The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC has been a feature since the network launched 2017, but users’ increasing embrace of RfP is triggering more development of it. With real-time processing backing it, the RfP option allows billers and merchants to receive nearly immediate payment …

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Square Releases Revised Point-of-Sale App With Custom Modes

Square is a long way from just offering a plug-in card reader dongle and there may be no better evidence of that with its fully revised Square Point of Sale app. This iOS and Android app enables merchants (Square calls them sellers), to pick and choose which services, such as …

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