Amazon.com Inc. announced an integration this week with an e-commerce platform called BigCommerce for its Amazon Pay service, but the company also clearly entertains big ambitions for the payment product it organized as a business in 2015. For now, Amazon Pay is on an upward trend. Some 33 million consumers, …
Read More »No Easy Answers as E-Retailers Contend With Compounding Payments Developments
Rattle off a selection of payment trends—EMV, tokenization, fraud—and many e-retailers may be beset by apprehension. That’s especially true if the retailer looks to support emerging payment types, according to Matt Herren, director of payments analytics at Computer Services Inc., a Paducah, Ky.-based financial-technology provider. Herren, speaking at the Merchant …
Read More »First Data Agrees to Acquire Acculynk, a Pioneer in PIN Debit for Web-Based Transactions
The idea of allowing consumers to use PIN debit cards to pay online merchants has been a tough sell in the payments business, but observers hope a deal announced Thursday may give it a much-needed boost. Processing kingpin First Data Corp. said it will acquire Acculynk Inc., a 9-year-old Atlanta-based …
Read More »Why Flywire Is Expanding Its Reach Into Cross-Border Business-to-Business Payments
Boston-based Flywire Corp., which for years has been processing tuition payments for students attending universities in foreign countries, is in the closing stage of a plan to enter the enormous market for processing payments between businesses in different countries. Pilots involving nine companies will run through the end of this …
Read More »Chatbots Are ‘Disappointing,’ Says ShopChat, So It’s Rolling Out a Shopping Keyboard
Chatbots have been carrying out commerce on messenger apps only since last spring, yet already some observers are less than thrilled with the experience, says Zephrin Lasker, chief executive and cofounder of a startup called ShopChat. “Many companies are pursuing robot assistant chatbots to interact with people on messaging. These …
Read More »UnionPay International’s Vast Reach and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• China-based UnionPay International says more than 41 million merchants and more than 2 million ATMs in 160 countries and regions now accept its UnionPay card, as do 10-million-plus Web-based merchants. More than 80% of U.S. merchants accept the card, the company says. • Point-of-sale terminal maker Equinox Payments said …
Read More »With Its Surprise Higher Bid, Euronet Tries To Step on Ant’s Plan To Acquire MoneyGram
Euronet Worldwide Inc., owner of the Ria money-transfer service, early Tuesday announced a $1 billion bid to acquire Dallas-based MoneyGram International Inc. Euronet’s unexpected bid casts a cloud of uncertainty over the $880 million buyout offer China-based Ant Financial Services Group submitted for MoneyGram in January. Leawood, Kan.-based Euronet called …
Read More »StubHub Users Soon Can Pay With Visa Checkout and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• Point-of-sale system maker E la Carte Inc. launched the PrestoPrime EMV Terminal designed for pay-at-the-table use. In addition to chip-card acceptance, the device also works with contactless payments, such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, and Quick Response code-based services. • Visa Inc. said StubHub users soon will be able …
Read More »In the Wake of Euronet’s Bid, Ant “Remains Highly Committed” to Its MoneyGram Buyout
Ant Financial Services Group issued its first comments late Tuesday on Euronet Worldwide Inc.’s surprise $1 billion bid earlier in the day for MoneyGram International Inc., the wire-transfer provider for which Ant Financial bid $880 million in January. “Ant Financial remains highly committed to the consummation of our merger with …
Read More »An API Emerges to Let Businesses More Easily Exploit Same-Day ACH Processing
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. On Monday, that day arrived with Dwolla Inc.’s announcement that it was commercializing a same-day ACH API. The code, which …
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