Veteran payments practitioners will recall that, “in the beginning,” issuers paid interchange to merchants to incent them to accept credit card payments from the incipient Visa and Mastercard networks. By the inception of electronic draft capture (circa 1980), that acceptance was growing to a critical-mass level nationwide, and by the late …
Read More »A Reported SEC Probe Casts a Spotlight on the Fast-Growing SPAC Trend
News late Wednesday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is inquiring into a newly popular alternative for going public comes as payments firms increasingly turn to the method in lieu of a traditional public offering. Reuters reported late Thursday the SEC is contacting Wall Street financial institutions to ask …
Read More »Shift4 Lands Petco Park Processing and other Digital Transactions News Briefs from 3/25/21
Shift4 Payments Inc. said it will process all payment transactions at Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. The deal follows Shift4’s expansion into stadiums and other venues through its recent acquisition of VenueNext Inc.Payments provider SignaPay Ltd. announced a partnership with Valor PayTech to provide Valor’s countertop, handheld, and PIN pad equipment …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Part One: How Intuit’s Network Suit Could Be a Blueprint for the DoJ
The now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t shuffle of interchange-rate changes planned for April may have betrayed a rare introspective moment at the payment networks—which are long used to imposing their fees and rules on the rest of the payments ecosystem at will. And that makes it hard to resist wondering what might be …
Read More »Paay And OpenPath Prep a Universal 3-D Secure Service
As criminals continue to target e-commerce transactions, online retailers are tasked with employing advanced methods to thwart them. Paay LLC, an authentication-services provider, and OpenPath Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based payment-services company, are developing a universal 3-D Secure plugin to help with that. Slated to be available in the second half …
Read More »Major Brands Lag on Mobile Acceptance Despite a Drive for Contactless, a Study Finds
After the pandemic struck a year ago, stores scrambled to install technology to support a wide range of payment options, including tap-and-pay, to reassure skittish consumers. But now a new report indicates those efforts may not have gone as far as many have assumed, particularly in the area of contactless …
Read More »Focus POS Releases @Table and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/24/21
Focus POS released its @Table service that enables customers to scan a QR code on the table that pulls up a menu on the device. They then can select and order items and receive confirmation their order is being prepared. They service can keep the tab open until the customer is …
Read More »COMMENTARY: How Covid Solidified a Supply-Chain Payment Shift
The Covid-19 pandemic sent shock waves through nearly every industry—not least the global supply chain. Every piece of the supply chain was impacted, from manufacturing and production to fulfillment. And because supply chains are the backbone of commerce, the implications radiated beyond supply-chain hubs and essential workers to also impact …
Read More »Nuvei Adds Mastercard Send Integration and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/23/21
Nuvei Corp. said it will integrate Mastercard Send push payments into its payment technology platform. Send enables speedy funds disbursement for use cases like payroll, insurance claims, and refunds.Agilysys Inc., a provider of point-of-sale software for the hospitality industry, rolled out Agilysys Digital Marketing, which allows managers to send personalized messages …
Read More »A DoJ Investigation of Visa Is the Latest Chapter in a Long History of Probes Into Network Policies
The news that the U.S. Department of Justice is probing debit card routing practices at Visa Inc. follows on a long history of such investigations and could portend a more serious attitude by regulators to address longstanding merchant complaints about network routing and pricing. “This is one more heavy step …
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