Fraudsters are hitting fuel pumps hard as they hunt for the dwindling number of places where they can take advantage of magnetic-stripe payments while EMV chip card acceptance takes hold in U.S. stores and restaurants. Last week, fleet-fueling payment card specialist WEX Inc. revealed that it increased its second-quarter provision …
Read More »Eye on Networks: Mastercard’s Transactions Increase 17%; Pulse’s Pulse Quickens
Mastercard Inc. reported Thursday that its switched transaction volume grew 17% in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Discover Financial Services’ Pulse debit network saw volume jump 15% after growing slightly in the first quarter following a long period of decline. Purchase, N.Y.-based Mastercard said its transaction count hit 16 billion versus …
Read More »Visa’s Quarterly Profit Quintuples as Payment Volumes Grow and Expenses Fall
Visa Inc.’s top brass talked at length Thursday about payments opportunities abroad, but they also noted that U.S. payment volumes, particularly in credit cards, did quite well in the quarter ending June 30. “Our global business benefited from an overall healthy economy as payments volume grew in every major region,” …
Read More »UnionPay Continues To Gain Share in the Worldwide Payment Card Market
Just over 6 billion payment cards now bear the UnionPay logo, and in 2016 the Chinese network accounted for 43% of all general-purpose credit and debit cards in the world, up from 41% in 2015, according to new findings from London-based Retail Banking Research. RBR estimates the worldwide payment card …
Read More »FIS Expands Cardless Cash to Thousands of U.S. Cardtronics ATMs
Cardless cash access at ATMs is expanding. ATM operator Cardtronics plc, which owns or operates more than 233,000 ATMs globally, is adding FIS Cardless Cash access to its U.S. machines, Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) announced Thursday. Launched in 2015, FIS Cardless Cash enables consumers to stage cash withdrawals using …
Read More »Mobile-Accepting Merchants Register Mixed Results in Risk Detection, Survey Reports
With much of the payments business focused on mobile payments, merchants are making progress in dealing with the payment method but are still lagging in key areas, such as the ability to identify overseas transactions, according to survey results released Thursday. Risk-detection, in particular, is an area where results are …
Read More »Durbin Repeal Effort Could Be Complicated by Nuanced Position of Some Small Banks
In the wake of a failed effort to repeal the Durbin Amendment this spring, many banks, networks, lobbying groups, and other repeal advocates are vowing to try again, as are the Congressmen who pushed the original repeal effort. But that doesn’t mean smaller banks, at least, are totally united behind …
Read More »Outspoken Merchant Advocate Mallory Duncan of the NRF To Retire
Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Retail Federation and one of the most outspoken advocates for merchants on payments issues, announced Thursday that he will retire at the end of August. “Whether you’re appealing to the Supreme Court, testifying before Congress or meeting at the …
Read More »Eyeing Hotter P2P Competition, PayPal Enables Instant Transfers to Users’ Bank Accounts
By John Stewart@DTPaymentNews PayPal Holdings Inc. on Tuesday cranked up the heat on a person-to-person payments market that’s already close to full boil. In a blog post on PayPal’s site, PayPal chief operating officer Bill Ready announced the company has started testing instant transfers from users’ PayPal wallets to their …
Read More »Amazon’s New Prime Reload Service Could Crimp Card Issuers in Two Ways
By Peter Lucas @DTPaymentNews With the launch of its Prime Reload rewards service, Amazon.com Inc. has positioned itself to deal a serious blow to bank card issuers’ revenues earned from interchange on Amazon.com purchases, and limit the visibility banks have into their cardholders’ behavior on the e-commerce giant’s Web site. …
Read More »