Competitive Strategies

The price of Bitcoin may have gotten hot in recent months, but investor interest in Bitcoin and blockchain startups could be cooling off. The population of unique investors pouring money into companies dealing in the cryptocurrency and its underlying infrastructure fell 27% last year to 217, according to the latest …

• China-based Ant Financial Services Group’s $880 million bid for wire-transfer provider MoneyGram International Inc. is generating increasing opposition in Congress on national-security grounds, according to press reports from Washington. U.S.-based Euronet Worldwide Inc. last month submitted an unsolicited $1 billion bid for MoneyGram. • Avangate, a subscription-management and e-commerce platform, announced …

Co-Op Financial Services, the big credit-union service organization based in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., announced Monday that it had acquired Des Moines, Iowa-based payment processor TMG for $100 million. Co-Op had been the minority owner of TMG, until recently known as The Members Group, and bought out the rest of the …

When the nation’s automated clearing house network introduced same-day settlement in September, it was only a matter of time before an application programming interface became available to simplify faster clearing. In March, that day arrived with Dwolla Inc.’s announcement that it was commercializing a same-day ACH API. The code, which …

In the United States, contactless payments are virtually synonymous with mobile payments. In other countries, contactless payments usually mean tap-and-go transactions with a plastic debit or credit card. In the United Kingdom, for example, spending on contactless cards reached a record £3.4 billion ($4.2 billion at current exchange rates) in …

Don’t look now, but decoupled-debit programs may be on the verge of a comeback as merchants look for ways to circumvent payment networks and spur loyalty among consumers. That’s the take from a new report, “Decoupled Debit: The Start of Mainstream Adoption?” issued by Maynard, Mass.-based Mercator Advisory Group Inc. …

Lately, the Federal Reserve Board has been shepherding a cross-industry effort to build a faster, more efficient, and more secure payments system in the United States. As that commendable effort heads into its home stretch, one big question stands out glaringly, but has largely gone unaddressed: How much influence should …

• CORRECTION: The March 30 issue of Digital Transactions News mischaracterized the business in which eProcessing Network LLC engages. It is a payment gateway. DTN regrets the error. • In a victory for Apple Inc. and its Apple Pay mobile-payments service, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission denied a request from four …

• Mastercard Inc. has agreed to acquire NuData Security, whose technology identifies users from their online, mobile-app, and smart-phone interactions. Terms were not disclosed. • Fair Isaac Corp., otherwise known as FICO, said it detected 70% more compromised debit cards at U.S. ATMs and point-of-sale terminals in 2016 than it did …

While independent sales organizations often say they want to compete on more than just price, pricing remains the main sales tool for many. But a growing number of ISOs and merchant acquirers are looking to add non-processing components to their product line-ups to attract and retain merchants. Several providers of …