Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The nascent trend toward tablets as cash-register replacements took several big steps forward this week, as technology players and at least one processor unveiled major promotions, including free transaction processing and other pricing deals, to entice small businesses to adopt mobile payments. On Wednesday, merchant processor Vantiv Inc. launched …
Read More »Google’s Decision to Ditch Its Card Adds to Search Giant’s List of Woes in Wallets
Google Inc.’s apparent decision to abandon its plan to launch a plastic card as part of its Google Wallet service is yet another sign of how major mobile-wallet players from outside the payments business are struggling to find a winning strategy, sources tell Digital Transactions News. News of the …
Read More »Google Wallet’s Cloudy Future Becomes Even Cloudier with the Departure of Bedier
Osama Bedier, vice president of Google Wallet and payments at search-engine giant Google Inc., has left the company, Google said on Thursday. Sources tell Digital Transactions News that Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s senior vice president of ads and commerce who also manages search advertising and shopping services, is now heading up …
Read More »Checkout Proves To Be the Achilles Heel of Mobile Commerce
Mobile devices may be making it easier for consumers to shop anywhere online, any time, but high shopping-cart abandonment rates are preventing them from cashing in big on this new sales channel. A recent survey by payments-and-authentication- services provider Jumio Inc. reveals that two-thirds of respondents attempting to make …
Read More »Eye on Mobile: An Update from the Fed’s Working Group; Mobile Market Shares
n Mobile payments remains a fragmented business with established financial-services players battling it out with startups and telecommunications giants. And progress for near-field communication (NFC), a snazzy, two-way contactless technology that once promised to revolutionize mobile payments, is still coming with painful slowness, according to the paper. n While …
Read More »Mitek Prepares To Duke It out in Court with USAA over Disputed Patents
It looks like mobile-deposit software developer Mitek Systems Inc. and its former ally USAA Federal Savings Bank will be going to the mat in their their patent dispute. Despite a near tripling in revenues to $3.22 million, Mitek on Tuesday reported a $2.39 million loss for fiscal 2013’s second …
Read More »Officials Give Some Hints to Acquirers on How To Stay in Washington’s Good Graces
Often regarded as the enemy, officials from the federal government gave some friendly advice to merchant acquirers last week about what regulators are concerned with regarding payments, including mobile payments, prepaid cards, and fraud control. The recommendations came during a government panel Thursday at the Electronic Transactions Association’s annual conference …
Read More »Retailer-Backed MCX Picks Gemalto as Its Digital-Wallet Technology Provider
The retailer-backed Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) mobile-payments system on Wednesday took another step toward its launch with the announcement that Netherlands-based Gemalto N.V. would provide the technology for its mobile wallet. Gemalto, which employs 224 workers at its U.S. headquarters in Austin, Texas, is best known for producing SIM …
Read More »PayPal Hikes Offline Merchant Count by 11% with First-Quarter Jump
Nearly 20,000 U.S. merchant locations now accept PayPal, up from 18,000 three months ago, according to data released on Wednesday in tandem with eBay Inc.’s quarterly earnings report. San Jose, Calif.-based PayPal Inc. is a unit of eBay. The roughly 11% jump in merchant acceptance for PayPal since eBay’s …
Read More »Credit Cards, Prepaid Cards and Smart Phones Emerge as the Stars of POS Payments Growth
Aided by an improving economy, credit cards staged a comeback in 2012, edging out debit cards as the key payment option at the retail point of sale, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. While debit cards held the greatest share of total dollar volume at …
Read More »