News

January, 2018

• 25 January

  The Beat Picks Up at Pulse as Discover’s Transaction Volume Grows

  

  Last year was a year of revival for Discover Financial Services’ long-suffering Pulse debit network, which posted a 19% fourth-quarter increase in year-over-year dollar volume on 15% more transactions. The strong finish—$42.4 billion in volume on 1.03 billion transactions—brought Pulse’s full-year volume to $157.1 billion, up 14% from $138 billion …
• 25 January

  Tender Armor’s Cash Infusion Aimed at Growth And New Hires to Fight Online Fraud

  

  Fraud-prevention specialist Tender Armor LLC intends to use the proceeds from its latest funding round to hire more personnel and launch its marketing efforts. Announced Thursday, the funding round, for an unspecified amount (though characterized as “multimillion”), is a big step in growing the startup, says Madeline K. Aufseeser, chief …
• 25 January

  The Democratization of Bitcoin: An ATM Network Appeals to Average Joes

  

  Bitcoin may have slipped from the near $20,000 price it commanded a little over a month ago, but it’s still selling for around $11,000, nearly a dozen times its value a year ago. That’s drawing in plenty of investors and other high rollers, but it’s also attracting average citizens, including …
• 25 January

  Pulse Volumes Increases 19% and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/25/18

  

  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced changes to its controversial prepaid accounts rule and extended its effective date by one year, to April 2019. The changes will adjust error-resolution requirements for prepaid card providers and will make it easier for consumers to link credit card accounts to digital wallets, some …
• 24 January

  The PCI Council Announces a Standard for Software-Based PIN Entry

  

  For decades, merchants have had to install specially designed and built devices to allow customers to enter their personal identification numbers for debit card payments. And lately, that has been the case for EMV cards, as well. But on Wednesday, that changed as the PCI Security Standards Council published a …
• 24 January

  NationPay Launches and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/24/18

  

  Payments provider CCBill LLC completed an integration with DatingPro, which provides software for dating sites. NationPay, a blockchain-based payments startup, announced its launch. Twenty app markets, including Apple’s App Store and Alphabet’s Google Play, are still hosting 661 Bitcoin apps blacklisted by cybersecurity vendors because hackers use them to attempt …
• 23 January

  Merchant Unit and a $136 Million Present From Uncle Sam Boost TSYS’s Bottom Line

  

  Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) generated $1.1 billion in segment revenues from its Merchant Solutions unit in 2017, a 22.8% increase from $898.5 million in 2016, the Columbus, Ga.-based processor reported late Tuesday. That growth outpaced 2017’s revenue increases of 5.2% and 12.6%, respectively, in TSYS’s card-issuing and Netspend prepaid …
• 23 January

  How a Movie-Ticket App Hopes to Make Voice Commerce a Main Attraction

  

  With voice commerce expected to grow from 18 million users last year to 78 million by 2022, according to Business Insider, sellers of all sorts are starting to pay attention to the technology’s potential to create new transaction markets—and perhaps steal volume from mobile devices. Early enthusiasts for voice are …
• 23 January

  FBI Data Show Fraudulent Online Sales of Cars and Outdoor Equipment, Funded by Gift Cards, Are Soaring

  

  Fraudulent online sales of cars, recreational vehicles, boats, and outdoor equipment are soaring, with the scams typically funded through the victims’ gift cards, according to recent FBI data. A public-service announcement the FBI posted last week on its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Web site says the site received 26,967 complaints …
• 22 January

  Bank of America Merrill Lynch Brings Single-Use Account Numbers to Business Payments

  

  Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch subsidiary on Monday announced enhanced capabilities for its Virtual Payables service, including the ability by corporate card-using businesses to create single-use account numbers in real time. In addition to the single-use card numbers, businesses with a BofA Merrill purchasing card can connect directly to …