News

January, 2017

• 30 January

  Adding Scale And Payroll Cards, Green Dot Pays $147 Million Upfront for UniRush

  

  Prepaid card specialist Green Dot Corp. has agreed to buy rival UniRush LLC in a deal valued at a minimum of $147 million and expected to close by the end of March. Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot, perhaps best known for managing Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s MoneyCard operation, said the deal will …
• 27 January

  TMS Adds Its Groovv POS System to Its Free-Hardware Program for Merchants And ISOs

  

  Independent sales organization Total Merchant Services Inc. has added its Groovv POS system to its free hardware program, a move that places all of its products in the program. Prior to this week’s announcement, only point-of-sale terminals were part of the program, says Woodland Hills, Calif.-based TMS. This should make it …
• 27 January

  More Than 400 Million Visa EMV Cards Issued and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • Coffee giant Starbucks Corp. reported its Mobile Order and Pay feature, which allows customers to order and pay on their mobile phone and then pick up the order later without waiting, accounted for 7% of all transactions in U.S. company-operated stores in the fourth quarter, up from 3% a year earlier. …
• 26 January

  Credit Cards Compromised in 19% of Data Breaches, Researchers Find

  

  Credit card numbers were involved in just under one-fifth of the 4,000-plus data breaches worldwide reported in 2016, data-security services provider Risk Based Security Inc. reported Wednesday. RBS says the latest release of its annual Data Breach QuickView found that 4,149 data breaches occurred or became publicly known in 2016, …
• 26 January

  Ant Financial, Backer of Alipay, Shells out $880 Million for No. 2 U.S. Money Transmitter MoneyGram

  

  The company behind the rapidly growing Alipay mobile-payment service is acquiring the second-largest U.S. based money-transfer company. China-based Ant Financial Services Group’s deal to buy Dallas-based MoneyGram International Inc. for $880 million in cash will likely close some time in the second half of the year , according to an …
• 26 January

  TSYS in FTC Settlement Talks Over NetSpend and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) reported that it is talking with the Federal Trade Commission to settle the FTC’s November lawsuit accusing TSYS’s NetSpend prepaid card unit of deceptively marketing reloadable prepaid cards. TSYS took a $13 million charge in the fourth quarter in connection with the settlement talks. • Newtek …
• 26 January

  More Than 400 Million Visa Cards Bear EMV Chips As U.S. EMV Acceptance Grows

  

  The total number of Visa Inc. credit and debit cards bearing an EMV chip numbered 408.1 million at the end of December, Visa announced Thursday. That’s a 2.1% increase from the 399.9 million tally at the end of November. Of the total, 219.4 million are debit cards and 188.7 million …
• 26 January

  The Fed’s Faster Payments Task Force Nears the End of Its Proposal Reviews

  

  The Federal Reserve’s Faster Payments Task Force is in the final stages of reviewing 19 proposals to speed up U.S. electronic payments, Fed executives tell Digital Transactions News. The faster-payments initiative is part of the Fed’s broader Payment System Improvement project that also addresses security and efficiency issues. The Fed …
• 26 January

  ‘We’re Just Scratching the Surface,’ CEO Schulman Says As PayPal Posts Strong Results

  PayPal Holdings Inc. finished its first full calendar year separated from eBay Inc. with a tone that suggests a bit of swagger. “It was a landmark year for PayPal,” chief executive Dan Schulman told stock analysts Thursday afternoon. “We introduced a host of innovations. We bring to our merchants an …
• 25 January

  Eye on Earnings: Discover’s Networks Post Varying Results; TSYS’ Revenues Up 58%

  

  Total dollar volume on Discover Financial Services’ networks increased 2% in the fourth quarter to hit $80.2 billion versus $78.8 billion a year earlier, but results varied among the company’s payment operations. Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover reported Tuesday that the Discover credit card unit posted proprietary volume of $34 billion, up …