Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
When JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced in November it would soon start mass-issuing contactless Visa cards, industry experts expected the move to at last kickstart a trend in the U.S. payments industry toward tap-and-pay EMV plastic. But while most experts thought Chase’s decision might stir smaller banks to follow suit, …
January, 2019
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28 January
Discover’s Contactless Fitness Improves Through Its Link-Up With Garmin Pay
Holders of Discover cards can now add their cards to the Garmin Pay mobile wallet for Garmin International Inc. wearable devices to make contactless payments, Discover Financial Services and Garmin announced Monday. Today’s announcement means that Discover is joining Visa and Mastercard as a payment option for Garmin Pay wallet …
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28 January
Payment Data Systems Posts 2018 Results and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/28/19
Payment Data Systems Inc. said it processed $3.4 billion in volume in 2018, a 21% increase from 2017’s $2.8 billion. Risk-management firm Featurespace raised $32.3 million from a funding round led by Insight Venture Partners. Payments provider ACI Worldwide said it will process real-time payments for 17 banks in Hungary …
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25 January
A Blockchain Group Bets Its Tech Can Achieve High-Speed, High-Volume Payments Processing
A consortium of academics is betting it has the formula to create a high-performance blockchain network capable of processing payments faster and at greater scale than competing blockchain networks. The network, called Unit-e, is expected to process transactions confirmed by consensus on the blockchain in 15 seconds. If realized, the settlement …
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25 January
Mastercard Aces Out Visa in Sudden Bidding War for B2B Processor Earthport
In a rare public bidding war pitting the two leading payment card networks against each other, British business-to-business payment processor Earthport Plc’s board of directors on Friday recommended that its shareholders accept Mastercard Inc.’s all-cash buyout offer, which is 10% higher than Visa Inc.’s offer the board endorsed less than …
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25 January
Discover Reports 4Q Results and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/25/19
Discover Financial Services said its payments services operation, which includes network partners, Diners Club International, and the Pulse electronic-funds transfer network, processed $60.5 billion in total volume in the fourth quarter, a 12% increase year-over-year. Volume on Pulse jumped 11% to $47.1 billion owing to new issuers as well as …
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24 January
Oxman Will Leave the ETA to Head up the Information Technology Industry Council
Jason Oxman, chief executive officer of the Electronic Transactions Association since 2012, is leaving to accept a position as president and chief executive of the Washington, D.C.-based Information Technology Industry Council. He is expected to take up his new duties late next month. In his years heading the 29-year-old ETA, …
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24 January
Zelle’s 2018 Transactions Jump 75%, While It Moved $119 Billion in P2P Payments
Zelle, the peer-to-peer payments service, had a banner 2018 with $119 billion in payments on 433 million transactions processed via its network of banks. That is a 58.7% increase in payments from 2017’s total of $75 billion and a 75.3% increase in transaction volume from 247 million. The increases were …
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24 January
TNS Buys R2G Services and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/24/19
Data-communications provider Transaction Network Services acquired R2G Services, a Chicago-based provider of a market-data and managed-hosting platform; terms were not disclosed. Payment processor Repay Holdings LLC, which private-equity firm Corsair Capital acquired in 2016, said it has a definitive merger agreement with Thunder Bridge Acquisition Ltd., a special-purpose acquisition firm …
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23 January
Microsoft Wallet: Barely There in Mobile Payments, and Soon To Be Gone for Good
Microsoft Corp. says it plans to retire its Microsoft Wallet mobile app, a distant also-ran in the mobile-wallet market, on Feb. 28. The disclosure came in a brief recent post on a company Web site. “Starting on Feb. 28, 2019, the Microsoft Wallet app will be officially retired,” the post says. …
