Green Dot Corp.’s diversification from a pure prepaid card management company into banking and other financial-services niches is driving direct deposits into its card accounts and spurring revenue-generating payment volume, according to the company’s latest financial report. Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot said Wednesday that fourth-quarter purchase volume on its cards …
Read More »Once a Novelty, Chatbots Appear To Be on Their Way to Mainstream Adoption
The use of chatbots in financial services is about to explode, if research released this week is any indication. Adoption will be such that the technology will save banks worldwide $7.3 billion in annual operating costs by 2023, compared to a projected $209 million this year, estimates Juniper Research in …
Read More »Goldman Sachs in Apple Credit Card Deal and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/21/19
Apple Inc. and the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will begin issuing a joint credit card this spring, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new card will tie into the Apple Wallet. Apple’s brand already is on a credit card issued by Barclaycard. It is unknown what will happen to that …
Read More »Sonarax Targets Payments With a Sound-Based Protocol
Sonarax, an ultrasonic-communications company, unveiled a new protocol for enabling devices, including ATMs and those capable of mobile payments, to communicate with one another. Israel-based Sonarax says its technology enables pairing of devices and data transfer on both encrypted and open channels using frequencies that are beyond human hearing capabilities. …
Read More »NAB Integrates With Vend and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/20/19
Payments provider North American Bancard Holdings LLC said it is integrating its capabilities with retail-management and point-of-sale software provider Vend. The joint service will be available to retailers through NAB’s resellers. Digital Debit Group, a unit of Qondado LLC, released a Quick Response code-based app for iOS and Android devices …
Read More »Apple Pay Adoption Reaches 43% of iPhone Users, Up From 36% Just Five Months Ago
Apple Pay adoption show no signs of abating, with an estimated 43% of iPhone users across the globe enabling the mobile-payments service, says Loup Ventures LLC in a research note released Tuesday. That’s up from 36% in September and 20% in December 2017. Other estimates from the Minneapolis-based venture-capital firm …
Read More »ATM Deployer Paramount Makes Acquisition and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/19/19
ATM and payment-services provider Paramount Management Group LLC acquired CAI—The ATM Company, an independent deployer with thousands of ATMs in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and other states. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. A partnership between Transaction Network Services and P97 Networks has processed in-dash fuel payments for …
Read More »A Coming Boom in Voice Commerce? and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/18/19
Voice commerce accounted for only 1% of U.S. online purchases last year, but is projected to grow to 5% by 2023, research firm Euromonitor International said. Research and consulting firm Mercator Advisory Group released the “Securing E-Commerce: Competing Technology Crowds the Market” report that examines e-commerce fraud and measures and …
Read More »Supermarket Kingpin Kroger Debuts Kroger Pay And a Rewards Debit Card
Cincinnati-based grocery giant The Kroger Co. has launched a proprietary mobile-payments service, Kroger Pay, and an accompanying Kroger Rewards debit card. Kroger Pay, available for iOS and Android mobile devices, is a quick-response code-based mobile-payment service, which also includes digital coupons and personalized offers. Kroger Pay, like some other retailer-backed mobile-payments services, …
Read More »North America Proved Difficult for Ingenico Last Year
Ingenico Group’s business generated through North American banks and merchant acquirers had a difficult 2018, the company reported Tuesday. Full-year revenues from North America within the Paris-based point-of-sale terminal maker and payment processor’s Banks & Acquirers segment declined 9% year-over-year on a constant-currency comparable basis and 13% as reported to …
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