Competitive Strategies

Processor Jack Henry & Associates Inc. announced late Tuesday that it has a deal to acquire Ensenta Corp., a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based provider of remote deposit capture and payment and risk-control services. Founded in 2001, Ensenta provides more than 1,100 financial institutions and government agencies with software-as-a-service products distributed via …

Payment consulting and testing firm Fime obtained D-Payment Application Specification (D-PAS) accreditation from Discover Financial Services for the Pulse debit network, meaning Fime’s EMV chip card service for merchant acquirers is now available on all of Discover’s networks that include Discover and Diners Club International in addition to Pulse. SalePoint …

The consumer shift to online shopping on Thanksgiving and the following Friday, known as Black Friday, continues to increase, now accounting for 29% of shopping on these two days compared with 25% a year ago, finds research from First Data Corp. Based on data from transactions at 1.1 million brick-and-mortar …

Research firm comScore Inc. said Thanksgiving e-commerce spending on desktop devices totaled $1.57 billion, a 22% increase from last year. Black Friday spending was $2.36 billion, a 20% increase from 2016. ComScore said 115 million consumers visited online retail sites on Thanksgiving, with 61% of them only visiting using a …

So far, nobody is making any money betting on Bitcoin to crash. The digital currency on Sunday soared past the $9,000 mark just five days after hitting $8,000 for the first time, and the $10,000 level could be in sight as early as later Monday, according to Coindesk, an online …

Early reports about consumer spending over the long Thanksgiving weekend indicate that merchant processors serving both brick-and-mortar and online merchants can expect more payment volume this year than last. With CyberMonday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, now in full swing, the outlook for online sales is strong if a report from …

On average, U.S. consumers will spend $500 on holiday purchases this season, found the TD Bank Merry Money Holiday Spending Survey. Most consumers could overspend. In the past, 76% of respondents said they overspent their past holiday budgets by an average of $263. Rakuten Marketing said its sales in the …

At a minimum, payment technology should create a path of least resistance for the consumer. Difficulty in settling an outstanding bill means organizations risk missing out on prompt payments. The consumer must be able to move freely between the payment channels they choose. Just because a consumer receives an outstanding …

Merchant processor iPayment Inc. has agreed to acquire Leaders Merchant Services, an independent sales organization that has worked with iPayment since 2004. Terms were not disclosed. Electronics maker SparkFun Electronics developed an app for Android devices that can detect the likely presence of a credit card skimmer commonly found on …

Despite all the talk about mobile payments, online payments, cryptocurrencies, and EMV chip cards, the alternatives to cash still haven’t killed their sworn enemy. In fact, between 2006 and 2016, the growth of currency in circulation matched or exceeded growth in gross domestic product in 40 of 42 nations examined …