News

May, 2017

• 3 May

  The Numbers Brighten in the First Quarter for Merchant Processor Square

  

  The numbers moved in the right direction for Square Inc. in the first quarter, with gross payment volume up 33% and profitability measures improving. But an analyst urged the merchant acquirer to disclose more data about its fast-growing but potentially volatile loan business called Square Capital. San Francisco-based Square reported Wednesday …
• 2 May

  Savvier Techniques Help Criminals Loot More Victims Through Call-Center Fraud

  

  Call centers remain a prime target for criminals looking to perpetrate fraud. In 2016, call-center fraud jumped 113% from 2015, according to Atlanta-based Pindrop Labs’ annual Call Center Fraud Report. Fraudulent activity took place with one in every 937 call-center calls, compared to one in 2,000 calls in 2015“With tools …
• 2 May

  Mastercard’s Transactions Grow 17%, Partly Because of More U.S. PIN-Debit Volume

  

  Mastercard Inc. reported Tuesday that it switched nearly 17% more transactions in the first quarter than it did a year earlier. Most of the growth came from overseas, but some of it resulted from more U.S. PIN-debit volume, company executives said. Purchase, N.Y.-based Mastercard said it switched 14.7 billion transactions …
• 2 May

  First Data and Flywire Team Up and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • Processing giant First Data Corp. and cross-border payments specialist Flywire Corp. announced a collaboration by which Flywire education and health-care clients will be able to more easily accept cross-border card payments and First Data clients will be able to more readily accept high-value international remittances. • Gro Solutions, a vendor of digital solutions …
• 1 May

  ACQUIRERS TARGET DIGITAL MARKETING

  Savvy execs look beyond payment processing for earnings growth. Text Receipts are a natural starting point. Credit card processing has long been a commodity business in the United States. Just as in other markets, large merchants have unbeatable pricing and it’s the small and medium sized businesses, or “SMBs”, who …
• 1 May

  Should Fintech Be Regulated?

  

  If you want to see a rowdy debate, try gathering a group of colleagues and posing the question of whether or not fintech companies should be regulated. In posing this question to several groups of payments professionals, I have observed that the same arguments, pro and con, keep coming up. …
• 1 May

  THE NOT-SO-FRIENDLY WORLD OF FRIENDLY FRAUD

    By Jacob Bennett, ETA CPP It’s important to understand the significance of friendly fraud, the damage it can cause, and how merchants can avoid it. Friendly fraud. The name is misleading as there’s really nothing “friendly” about it. Friendly fraud is a type of chargeback in which a customer …
• 1 May

  Worldpay Declares Its Network Quick Chip Ready

  

  Quick Chip, a Visa Inc. protocol for streamlining the EMV transaction process, is now available on processor Worldpay’s network. Announced Monday, the service reduces a chip card terminal’s transaction time by approximately 3 seconds, Worldpay says. Quick Chip eliminates the need to leave the card in the reader while waiting …
• 1 May

  If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em Part Way: Behind Deluxe’s eCheck Technology

  

  For all the talk by companies about how adopting electronic-payment technologies will streamline their accounts-payable processes, paper checks remain a staple of the business-to-business world. Businesses cut 13.1 billion checks a year, according to check printer Deluxe Corp. To join the advantages of electronic processing with those of paper checks, …
• 1 May

  Perceptions of Card-Not-Present Fraud Need Clarification, U.S. Payments Forum Says

  

  Card-not-present fraud is growing as EMV chip cards make it harder for fraudsters to use counterfeit credit and debit cards at the point of sale, but perceptions about the reasons for the increase may need some clarification, according to the U.S. Payments Forum. “Some of the reports of large rises …