Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Coffee king Starbucks Corp. announced new options beginning this fall for earning loyalty points, or stars, in the Starbucks Rewards program without paying with a registered Starbucks physical card or card loaded into the Starbucks mobile app. The options to be available at company-owned stores in the United States and Canada will …
July, 2020
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20 July
Its PayPal Deal Having Expired, eBay Acts on Its Global Ambitions for Managed Payments
Free of the restraints of a legal agreement with PayPal Holdings Inc., eBay Inc. said early Monday it will now start on a global expansion of its 2-year-old managed-payments program. The program has already delivered $4.7 billion in total payment volume in the United States and Germany, the company said, …
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20 July
The Card Networks and Open Banking; Crypto Platform Joins Mastercard Network and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/20/20
Cryptocurrency platform Wirex has become the first such entity to obtain a principal membership in the Mastercard network. The move comes as Mastercard Inc. announced an expansion of its cryptocurrency program, which aims to make it easier for crypto card companies to market their products. Wirex also announced recently it has hired long-time …
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20 July
COMMENTARY: How Their Open-Banking Buys Could Propel Mastercard And Visa
The global retail-payment networks Mastercard and Visa are on a tear, acquiring and investing in adjacent payment-opportunity space in networks that can leverage and reinforce their existing franchises. Their traditional payment schemes are dominant worldwide and near indestructible. While for the foreseeable future they could grow on autopilot, to their …
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17 July
Eye on Mass Transit: Uber Buys Routematch; Visa Contactless Rebounds; Philly Gets Mobile Wallets
With its core ride-hailing business ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic, Uber Technologies Inc. has been looking to move further into adjacent transportation markets, including mass-transit ticketing and payments. This week, the company said it had bought Routematch Software, a 20-year-old, Atlanta-based developer of systems that manage trip booking and ticketing, …
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17 July
COMMENTARY: Covid-19 Changed Demand for Cashless Payments. Are Small Businesses Ready?
The month of June gave Google Pay an extended moment. Early in the month, the tech press started circulating rumors that Google planned to add merchant buttons inside the app. This feature would allow both digital and brick-and-mortar businesses to accept customer payments within Google Pay. But users in India …
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17 July
BigCommerce Eyes IPO and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/17/20
E-commerce services provider BigCommerce Holdings Inc. filed a registration statement this week ahead of a possible IPO.In its latest report on small businesses using its SwipeSimple payment service during the Covid-19 pandemic, CardFlight Inc. said overall transaction counts decreased 9.2% in the week ending July 12 from the week before, but were still 14% …
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16 July
Covid-Fighting Stimulus Programs Help Deliver an Unexpected Growth Surge for the ACH
Thanks to federal programs to deliver stimulus funds to businesses and individuals, the second-quarter slowdown automated clearing house governing body Nacha expected due to Covid-19 didn’t happen. In fact, the massive ACH network saw year-over-year growth in the April-through-June quarter of 7.9%, Nacha reported late Wednesday. The second quarter’s growth …
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16 July
Zelle Users at BofA Defy the Pandemic Gravity
Payment card usage in the U.S. might be taking a hit during the Covid-19 pandemic, but not the Zelle person-to-person payments service among Bank of America Corp.’s customer base. Charlotte, N.C.-based BofA reported Thursday that it had 11.3 million active Zelle users, including small businesses, in the second quarter, up 41% …
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16 July
EMVCo’s New Travel Authentication Guidelines and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/16/20
Standards body EMVCo has developed guidelines on how the travel industry can provide data to payment card issuers to better verify the authenticity of an e-commerce transaction using current authentication processes. The guidelines are an extension of EMVCo’s 3-D Secure messaging protocol.The number of data breaches in the United States dropped by approximately one-third in the …
