Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
As in the United States, Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. dominate card payments in Europe, but now the two U.S.-based card brands are growing on that continent partly at the expense of smaller brands they own. European issuers are systematically switching Visa Electron and Mastercard Maestro cards to simply Visa …
November, 2017
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10 November
Gift Card Recipients Spend More and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 11/10/17
Private-equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC announced it plans to acquire ABC Financial Services Inc., an independent sales organization and software company serving more than 6,700 health clubs in North America and Europe. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close by year’s end, were not disclosed. Morgan Stanley Wealth …
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9 November
ThreatMetrix Reports a 100% Increase in Third-Quarter Cyberattacks in Just Two Years
It’s not a pretty picture, but then anything detailing the proliferation of cybercrime isn’t likely to have a bright side. ThreatMetrix Inc., in its “2017 Q3 Cybercrime Report,” says it detected and stopped 171 million attacks in the third quarter, a 100% increase from the 2015 third quarter. The report, …
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9 November
CPI Notes Slow EMV Card Demand and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 11/9/17
Backers of the so-called SegWit2x proposal to double block size for Bitcoin suspended the effort on Wednesday, citing a lack of “consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade.” The move, which would have occurred around Nov. 16, was an effort to increase transaction capacity for Bitcoin and relieve upward pressure on …
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8 November
Gone With the Wind: Hurricanes Blow a Hole in a Puerto Rican Processor’s Volumes
Hurricanes Irma and especially Maria devastated Puerto Rico-based payment processor Evertec Inc.’s business in September, and the company’s merchant business is in for a long recovery as the island struggles to restore electric power and other essential services to businesses and residences. In reviewing Evertec’s third-quarter results during a Tuesday …
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8 November
Square Cuts Its Net Loss in Half And Lays Stress on Selling to Large Merchants
Square Inc. is still losing money, but less so, and the company made it clear Wednesday its sights are firmly fixed on selling its products and services to larger merchants. “We’re not just about micro-merchants,” chief financial officer Sarah Friar told equity analysts in a conference call to discuss the …
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8 November
With Gift Cards, Consumers Are Spending Much More Than the Gift Amount
Gift card recipients spend on average $38 more than the value of their gift cards, a $10 increase from 2016, says First Data Corp. in its “2017 Prepaid Consumer Insights Study” released Wednesday by the giant processor. Based on the responses of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers, the report found …
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8 November
Volume from New Software Ventures Grows for Global Payments as ISO Business Fades
Global Payments Inc. was one of the first merchant acquirers to identify the payments opportunities in pairing up with independent software vendors and related firms that serve businesses with all manner of applications, and now those channels are bringing in 40% of revenues, chief executive Jeff Sloan said Wednesday. That …
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8 November
Buoyed by a Strong Quarter, Green Dot Prepares Launches of Apple Pay Cash And Intuit Programs
Prepaid program manager Green Dot Corp. logged a strong quarter and now looks forward to big results from fresh deals with Apple Inc. and Intuit Inc., chief executive Steven W. Streit told stock analysts on Tuesday. Speaking on the same day Apple released a so-called public beta version of its …
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8 November
Phoenix Group Sold to Ingram Micro and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 11/8/17
NCR Corp. launched the NCR Silver Quantum point-of-sale system that features an integrated payment device with mobile wallet acceptance, a customer loyalty program, and a scanner that are loaded onto a Samsung Galaxy Tab A tablet. NCR Silver Quantum, in addition to the NCR Silver POS software, is the first …
