Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
A merchant trade group and at least one bank card network are exchanging fire again this week over the fees merchants pay to accept cards. Triggering the skirmish this time was a press release and report prepared by the Merchants Payments Coalition as a follow-up to a July 19 Congressional …
Read More »Online, Other Factors Beat Costs in Driving Alternative Payments
For all the publicity surrounding merchant dissatisfaction with payment-acceptance costs, the issue doesn't rank high with online retailers looking into alternatives to bank-issued credit and debit cards, a payment-industry researcher says. E-commerce merchants are adopting, or investigating, such payment providers as PayPal Inc. and Bill Me Later Inc. hoping most …
Read More »Why Once-Soaring Contactless Payment Has Lost Some Altitude
Data Insecurity Part 7 In the lore of payments innovations, there's a maxim that seems to always hold true: Before you ever reach critical mass, beware of the New York Times article that raises questions about your security or operability. If you can't weather that storm, your payments innovation will …
Read More »It’s Labry up And Bailis out As KKR Completes Its First Data LBO
It wasn’t just another Monday for processor First Data Corp. The company started its new life as a private company by completing its widely watched, $29 billion leveraged buyout, and it installed a new management team under new chairman and chief executive Michael D. Capellas. Edward Labry, the head of …
Read More »Cellular South Looks to Roll out First Commercial U.S. NFC Service
Cellular South expects to launch some time in the first quarter what would almost certainly be the first commercial application of near-field communication (NFC) technology for point-of-sale payment, and also the first driven by a wireless carrier rather than a payment network. The plan follows a three-month, two-city pilot in …
Read More »Discover Adds Chase Paymentech, Says More Acquirer Deals Coming
With its announcement on Thursday that it has added Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the nation's largest merchant acquirer, to its stable of bank card acquirers offering acceptance to small and mid-sized merchants, Discover Financial Services LLC further reduces what was once a yawning gap between itself and the bank card …
Read More »Advice for M-Payments Entrepreneurs: Aim at the Underbanked
For the raft of processors either moving into mobile payments or hammering out business plans to make an entry, the top executive with one company that has been in the market for six years has some advice: Focus on the market made up of people who lack bank accounts, and …
Read More »New Biller Categories, More Vendors Spur PINless Debit Growth
Transactions consumers make online with PIN-debit cards?but without entering their PINs?will soar 40% this year, to an estimated 92 million payments, driven by rising biller adoption, an expansion of eligible biller categories, and increasing availability of the payment option among vendors that handle payments for billers, according to a new …
Read More »Sued by FTC, MPI Begins Turnaround, Looks to Expand to Midwest
The new chief executive of Merchant Processing Inc. says his independent sales organization is on the road to recovery five months after the Federal Trade Commission accused the ISO and its then president of defrauding merchants and had MPI placed in receivership. James Keller, a certified public accountant with experience …
Read More »How Cardtronics Could Make Use of $300 Million from Its IPO
The payment industry's Wall Street parade continued Monday when non-bank ATM network owner Cardtronics Inc. announced plans for an initial public offering of common stock. The Houston-based operator of 31,000 machines hopes to raise potentially $300 million, before underwriting fees and payments to current owners, to pay down debt and …
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