Industry opinions are mixed regarding a move by banking trade groups to plead for more time to act on a ruling issued in October by the Federal Reserve. The ruling orders all banks to comply by July 1 with an 11-year-old requirement that merchants have a choice of at least …
Read More »Repay Sells a Software Unit And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/16/23
Payments provider Repay Holdings Corp. said it has sold its Blue Cow Software LLC unit to PDI Technologies Inc., a software provider for convenience stores and petroleum-related companies. Terms were not disclosed. Blue Cow came to Repay in June 2021 as a result of Repay’s $503-million acquisition of BillingTree in 2021. Digital identity and fraud prevention …
Read More »NRS Makes Canada Move And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/15/23
National Retail Solutions, a point-of-sale platform provider, said it is expanding to Canada. Currently, select retailers in Toronto are deploying NRS terminals with plans to add more cities in coming months. Payments platform Nayax Ltd. said EV Meter, a technology firm working with Nayax on new electric-vehicle charging platforms, will support EV …
Read More »U.K. Regulators Are Mulling BNPL Legislation
Two years after announcing United Kingdom lawmakers would regulate buy now, pay later services, HM Treasury, the British government’s financial arm, has begun its consultation process. As reported in The Guardian, the process will take eight weeks and will outline the rules that BNPL providers will have to follow. Klarna …
Read More »Visa’s Mobile Move in Africa And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/14/23
Visa Inc. is working with Tingo Mobile, a unit of the global fintech MICT Inc., in an effort to expand access to digital payments throughout Africa. The move starts with the Tingo Visa Card, along with a TingoPay mobile app and a TingoPay business portal. Klarpay AG, a fintech offering businesses …
Read More »January Restaurant Spending Soars And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/10/23
January retail sales, excluding automotive, were up 8.8% over January 2022, Mastercard Inc. said in its latest SpendingPulse report. Restaurant spending, in particular, was high at 24.2% more sales year-over-year. Spending on Bank of America Corp. credit and debit cards increased 5.1% year-over-year in January in a sign the bank interprets as “signs of …
Read More »The Potential to Choose Foreign Networks Worries Backers of Credit Card Choice
A bill designed to allow merchants to have a choice of networks for routing credit card transactions failed to pass last year, but now international tensions could affect the proposed law’s prospects in the new Congress. The bill, called the Credit Card Competition Act, would mandate that merchants have a …
Read More »Merchants Target China And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/7/23
The Merchants Payments Coalition released a letter it sent to the House Financial Services Committee arguing the Credit Card Competition Act should be enacted to block what the merchant-advocacy group calls a “national security threat” from China UnionPay, a China-based credit card network. The House committee has scheduled a hearing for this morning on “Combatting the …
Read More »Blockchain on a Mobile App? AmazeWallet Says It’s Coming Soon
A company called AmazeWallet over the weekend said it will soon launch a so-called super app that will let users run blockchain technology on a mobile phone. The app will run such functions as mining tokens, exchanging cryptocurrency, and sending encrypted messages, the London-based company noted. AmazeWallet said it has …
Read More »Marqeta Closes On Power Finance And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/6/23
Card-issuing platform Marqeta Inc. closed on its acquisition of Power Finance Inc., a credit card management service. The $275-million deal was announced Jan. 30. U.S. semiconductor maker MKS Instruments Inc. reported it is investigating a ransomware attack that happened last week, according to Reuters. The company said it is temporarily suspending operations at some its plants. A group …
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