Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Tougher security vetting by high-end luxury goods retailers has online fraudsters moving downscale to the still-profitable mid-price range, and crooks also are targeting refurbished consumer electronics, according to new findings from security technology firm Forter Inc. Forter, which has offices in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, Israel, this week released …
December, 2016
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15 December
PayPal Follows Up on Visa And MasterCard Pacts With Citi And FIS Agreements for 2017
After PayPal Holdings Inc. in July signed a sweeping agreement with Visa Inc., and in September reached a similar deal with MasterCard Inc., giving PayPal access to the card networks’ token engines and thereby new access to the physical point of sale, observers wondered when the other shoe would drop. It dropped …
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15 December
A Landmark Reciprocity Pact Lets Visa And MasterCard Access Each Other’s Tokens
Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. have been tokenizing their payment cards since 2014, but have not been able to access tokens for cards branded by the other network. That will change soon as the result of an agreement announced separately Thursday by Visa and MasterCard. Under the agreement, Visa will be able …
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14 December
Bill Pay, Mobile Deposit Among the Most Popular Features of Banks’ Mobile Apps
Bill payment continues to reign as the most-used payments feature of banks’ mobile apps, but mobile deposit and person-to-person payments are coming on strong, according to new findings from research firm Celent and FI Navigator Corp. The “Mobile Banking Quantified” study by Celent, a division of New York City-based of Oliver …
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14 December
Eye on Gift Cards: InComm Nets Distribution Deal; Blackhawk Debuts Hawk Direct
As gift cards continue to garner great consumer interest—they are the most sought-after gift this holiday season, says the National Retail Federation—two gift card providers announced moves to boost their respective market shares. In an exclusive deal, Atlanta-based InCommwill provide grocer cooperative Wakefern Food Corp. with a gift card and prepaid program. The …
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14 December
ACH Volumes Continue Their Hot Streak With Nearly 6% Growth in the Third Quarter
Continuing the stepped-up growth rate it’s seen for nearly two years, the automated clearing house network’s transaction volume grew 5.7% in the third quarter, slightly better than the second quarter’s 5.6% growth. The third quarter was notable for marking the start of same-day ACH processing. The latest quarterly report from …
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14 December
Chip-on-Chip Transactions Increase and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• Chip card standards body EMVCo reported that 42.4% of global general-purpose credit and debit card-present transactions from July 2015 to June 2016 involved an EMV chip card being read by an EMV-enabled point-of-sale terminal, up from 33% in the previous 12-month period. In the U.S., where the card networks’ POS EMV liability shifts took …
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13 December
Messaging-Based Payments Heat Up As Western Union Expands Its Link to Viber
The merger of messaging apps and payments took another step forward Wednesday with the news that The Western Union Co. is allowing U.K. users of the popular Viber service to send money from within the app. The deal follows a similar arrangement the money-transfer kingpin made with Viber for U.S. …
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13 December
If You Thought Digital Commerce Was on A Tear, You’re Right. Here Are the Numbers
Online commerce gets a lot of attention these days, but just how much of the retail economy in North America does it account for? The answer is 7%, according to a report released Tuesday by Boston-based researcher Aite Group. That’s accounting for all e-commerce sales as well as browser-based and …
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13 December
Image Exchange Leader ECCHO Exploring ‘Possible Strategic Opportunities’
The Electronic Check Clearing House Organization (ECCHO), a leader in the movement to develop check image exchange, announced Monday that it is “exploring possible strategic opportunities.” The terms “exploring strategic opportunities” or “exploring strategic options” usually mean a company is up for sale. It is indeed possible that the ECCHO …
