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Publicly-held merchant acquirers were the best-performing payments stocks of 2015, investment-advisory firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods says in its “2016 Outlook: Pay for Growth in This Environment” report released Tuesday. Among the acquirers and processors KBW tracks are PayPal Holdings Inc., Global Payments Inc., Vantiv Inc., Heartland Payment Systems …
Read More »Retailers, Bankers on Opposite Sides as House Panel Considers Data-Security Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee on Tuesday afternoon was scheduled to consider a data-security bill that is drawing fire from merchant trade groups and consumer advocates, but which has the support of the American Bankers Association. H.R. 2205, the Data Security Act of 2015, was introduced last …
Read More »Rising Consumer Affinity for Subscription Billing Could Boost Payments Companies
Changes in consumer shopping behavior and new ways for companies to measure how they deliver a service are providing a boost in subscription billing, especially as cloud-based services become more mainstream. “The size of the subscription-billing service market is exploding with the advent of cloud-billing solutions being offered as a …
Read More »Holiday Mobile Payments Predicted To Grow 47%, With All E-Commerce Up 14%
Powered by growth in mobile payments, so-called digital commerce for 2015’s holiday season will grow 14.3% to $70.1 billion from last season’s $61.3 billion, Internet metrics firm comScore Inc. predicted Wednesday. Reston, Va.-based comScore defines digital commerce to include desktop e-commerce and mobile commerce. The firm predicts desktop e-commerce for …
Read More »Visa Says It’s ‘Extremely Encouraged’ by Results From EMV’s First Official Month
Visa Inc. on Tuesday reported U.S. EMV chip card statistics for October, the first month in which the payment card networks’ EMV liability shifts for point-of-sale transactions took effect. The numbers show EMV’s footprint is still small, but growing rapidly. There are now 180.6 million Visa-branded chip cards in the …
Read More »Visa, Wal-Mart Settle Wal-Mart’s Interchange Opt-Out Lawsuit
Visa Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have settled a 2014 antitrust lawsuit the huge retailer filed against Visa that sought $5 billion in damages, Visa reported. Disclosure of the settlement comes in a brief passage in Visa’s annual report for fiscal 2015 ended Sept. 30, which Visa filed with the …
Read More »Square Low-Balls Its IPO, but Shares Pop on First Morning of Trading
By Jim Daly Merchant processor Square Inc. priced its initial public offering of stock late Wednesday at $9 per share, about 25% lower than it had hoped for, but positive investor sentiment lifted the stock Thursday morning in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Square …
Read More »Following Skrill Acquisition, Optimal Payments Changes Its Name to Paysafe
Merchant processor Optimal Payments Plc announced it has changed its name to Paysafe Group Plc. The move reflects the company’s direction following the closing of its Skrill acquisition in August. The deal bolstered the company’s stake in digital wallets. “This was a major milestone for the company, and although we …
Read More »Square Will Soon Exit the Ranks of Unicorns, But Those Ranks Are Fast Expanding
Square Inc.’s official filing to go public means it will soon exit an exclusive club that’s becoming less exclusive by the month: the so-called unicorns, or privately held companies that are worth $1 billion or more. There are 143 such companies now, up from 123 in early August. Indeed, more …
Read More »Square Looks To Raise Up to $333 Million as IPO Gets Closer
Square Inc. on Friday set a price range for its planned initial public offering of stock in which the high end could generate about $333 million for the merchant processor. Square filed an amended registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that it plans to sell 25.65 million …
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