Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. are shelling out ever more dollars to buy issuer loyalty and induce merchants to route transactions onto their networks. A Digital Transactions News analysis shows the two leading payment card networks are on track to spend approximately $6.75 billon on so-called rebates and incentives in …
Read More »Visa Inc. Will Buy Visa Europe, But Can It Get From Europe What It Earns in the U.S.?
Ending months of speculation, Visa Inc. on Monday announced it will buy its European counterpart, London-based Visa Europe Ltd., in a cash, stock, and earn-out deal valued at $23.4 billion. “We’re delighted to be reuniting the Visa family,” said Visa Inc. chief executive Charles W. Scharf in discussing the acquisition …
Read More »Time, Money and Convenience Play Critical Roles in Mobile-Payments Adoption
If consumer adoption of mobile payments is going to break past its current low rate, purveyors of the services will have to find new ways of making m-payments faster and more convenient to use, and attractive for merchants to accept. That’s the assessment from Derek Francom, director of PayPal …
Read More »Pennsylvania Money-Transmitter Advisory for ISOs, Processors and Banks Sparks Concerns
A recent Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities’ advisory about potentially requiring independent sales organizations and processors to obtain money-transmitter licenses could pose problems for the payments industry. “It’s the wrong execution of the right idea,” Scott Talbott, senior vice president for government affairs at the Electronic Transactions Association, …
Read More »Mobile Payments Poised for Big Growth, but Apple Pay Not Busting the Charts Yet
The latest forecast for mobile payments at the point of sale echoes what many other studies have said, which is that current volume is minuscule. But a convergence of forces, including mobile wallets coming preloaded with more and more smart phones and more point-of-sale terminals being able to accept new …
Read More »Now That the Big Risk Shift Has Taken Place, Get Set for EMV Non-Compliance Fees
Now that merchant acquirers, and, by extension, merchants, are liable for certain kinds of fraud losses if the merchants aren’t prepared for EMV chip cards, acquirers are starting to put in place EMV non-compliance fees to cover their new risk exposure. One of the first to move on this is …
Read More »VeriFone Launches New POS Terminals Embodying Modern Design Cues
VeriFone Systems Inc. on Thursday introduced a new point-of-sale terminal product line that embraces design cues from consumer electronics. With the new terminal line, VeriFone also introduced its first app store. Dubbed Engage, the series of six devices, which includes two countertop terminals, two PIN pads, and two portable devices, …
Read More »As It Prepares to Ship Devices, Startup Poynt Wins Key EMV And PCI Certifications
For merchants these days, laying hands on a payment terminal with the needed EMV certifications is hard enough. Finding a certified device with built-in intelligence is even harder. Against that backdrop, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup called Poynt Co. on Thursday announced its Poynt Smart Terminal is the first such …
Read More »Revenue Per Merchant Varies Greatly for Mid-Tier Merchant Acquirers, Report Shows
Top performing merchant acquirers make more than 103 basis points per transaction from merchants that process with them. That’s the finding from a survey of 37 independent sales organizations and acquirers conducted by Adil Consulting, an Omaha, Neb.-based payments-advisory firm. The median is 64 basis points. The top 20% of …
Read More »House Panel Hears How EMV Rings Up a Big Tab for Some Small Businesses
Implementing EMV chip card payments can be anything but a cheap and easy plug-and-play for small businesses, according to testimony several merchants gave before a U.S. House of Representatives committee Wednesday. Art Potash, chief executive of Potash Markets, a 65-year-old family-run Chicago grocery operation with three stores, told the House …
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