News

January, 2023

• 4 January

  ID Theft Hits Black Victims’ Wallets Especially Hard, New Research Says

  

  Identity theft is a national scourge, but initial research findings released early Wednesday indicate that scourge impacts Black victims far more than it does other segments of the U.S. population. The impact can be measured by the dollar losses ID theft victims suffer, according to the report. In one example …
• 4 January

  Ackroo’s Simpliconnect Deal And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/4/23

  

  Ackroo Inc., a point-of-sale marketing and payments platform, said it has closed on its acquisition of Simpliconnect, a cloud-based marketing service for service stations and convenience stores. Under the terms of the deal, Ackroo paid $750,000 at the close and will make six monthly cash payments of $125,000 starting July …
• 3 January

  Inflation’s Impact On Remittances And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/3/23

  

  The number of cryptocurrency hacks globally reached 190 last year, setting a new annual record and exceeding 2021’s total by 44%, according to Comparitech. The value stolen totaled $3.57 billion, exceeding the combined total for 2019, 2020, and 2021. Some 82% of senders of remittances across borders said the cost of living has risen …

December, 2022

• 30 December

  UnionPay Adds 4 million Merchants Globally And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/30/22

  

  China-based UnionPay International announced 38 million merchants globally now accept the UnionPay card, four times the number 10 years ago, with 4 million added in 2022. UnionPay has issued more than 20 million cards internationally this year, bringing to more than 200 million the number of cards outside the Chinese Mainland. Former …
• 29 December

  Empowering Merchants with Real-Time Payment Data

  

  Merchants continue to pull every lever to generate additional revenue within an increasingly competitive landscape. For them, it is a matter of survival. And while numerous offerings promise equally innumerable benefits, there’s a hidden goldmine that can ensure the growth merchants are looking for: their payments data in real-time. > …
• 29 December

  DealerPay Shifts to a Higher Gear And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/29/22

  

  Dealer-Pay, a payments-technology provider for automobile dealerships, has integrated its platform with Dealertrack, a management system serving the same industry. Guarda, whose cryptocurrency wallet includes a prepaid Visa card, added five more digital currencies to the 14 it already supports. Supported cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin and Ethereum. Japan-based Smartpay has launched Smartpay …
• 28 December

  MoneyGram Links to CellPay for Bill Pay And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/28/22

  

  MoneyGram International Inc. announced a partnership with bill-payment platform CellPay to expand bill-pay options for MoneyGram users while expanding acceptance for MoneyGram’s service to more than 30,000 billers. Some 3.46% of U.S. consumers opened a new credit card in November, down from 3.7% in November 2021, according to the December 2022 …
• 27 December

  The Advantage of Cloud-Enabled Payments for ISVs

  

  By Tom Byrnes, SVP, Marketing If you are an ISV, you know that adding payments to your solution adds value and gives you a competitive edge in the marketplace. Whether you like it or not, if your user base accepts payments, you are – by default – in the payments …
• 27 December

  U.S. Holidays Sales Soar 7.6% And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/27/22

  

  U.S. retail sales in the Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 period, excluding automotive, grew 7.6% compared to the same time in 2021, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse, which tracks in-store and online sales. E-commerce sales alone were up 10.6%. The calculation took account of all forms of payment but was not …
• 23 December

  Eye on Blockchain: RocketFuel Sees Rising Crypto Transaction Counts; Centbee Raises $1 Million

  

  You wouldn’t know it from all the headline stories regarding the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, but below the surface commerce in digital currencies continues unabated, albeit still at very low volumes relative to commerce in fiat. RocketFuel Blockchain Inc., a San Francisco crypto processor for e-commerce merchants, announced …