News

October, 2016

• 12 October

  NFC Forum Releases Four Proposed Specs and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • Payment gateway Shift4 Corp., which claims to have introduced in 2005 the first payment-data tokenization solution, announced it has surpassed the 7-billion mark in tokenized transactions. • The NFC Forum announced it has made available a newly adopted and four candidate technical specifications for near-field communication. The adopted specification …
• 12 October

  Fed Task Forces Evaluating 19 Proposals as Industry Works Toward Faster Payments

  With an eye on having tangible proposals out by mid-2017, two Federal Reserve task forces are about to evaluate 19 plans to make electronic payments faster. Speed and security usually come to mind first when payments executives talk about improving the U.S. payment system, but other factors increasingly important to …
• 11 October

  How Bots And Natural-Language Searches Could Drive Mobile Shopping And Payments

  

  By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Ever since the advent of mobile shopping, experts have cautioned that spending in the new channel would be hampered by small screens and clunky interfaces. Now, though, relatively new technology like natural-language interfaces and so-called bots may be coming to the rescue. A new study released …
• 11 October

  Eye on Security: Synchrony Endows UConn Cybersecurity Center; Banks Ignoring Mobile Risk?

  

  By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Best known nationally for its powerful basketball teams, the University of Connecticut is about to make a name for itself in cybersecurity. UConn’s School of Engineering and retail credit provider Synchrony Financial on Tuesday announced that Synchrony is providing $2.2 million to fund a new
• 11 October

  Retailer Casper Accepts Online Apple Pay and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • To Go Stores, a Puerto Rico-based convenience-store chain, will use P97 Networks’ PetroZone mobile commerce and digital marketing platform to enable mobile payments at the pump and for in-store transactions, P97 Networks announced. • Mattress retailer Casper Sleep Inc. said it is now accepting Apple Pay for online purchases. …
• 10 October

  The CFPB’s Prepaid Account Rule Took a Pass on Regulating Virtual Currencies

  By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Its many critics have labeled the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as the regulatory agency run amok, but the CFPB declined to regulate virtual currencies in its newly released rule governing prepaid card accounts even though banks and consumer groups urged it to do so. The CFPB issued …
• 10 October

  Intrix Buys Maas Global Solutions and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • Merchant processor Payroc LLC announced it has acquired payment gateway The iTransact Group. Terms were not disclosed. Besides the gateway, the deal brings 6,000 merchants with $1.3 billion in annual volume to Payroc, along with mobile point-of-sale technology and a payment-facilitator platform. • Payments provider Intrix Technology Inc. purchased the business …
• 7 October

  Eye on Holiday Spending (Already): Merchants Gear Up for the Big Shopping Season

  

  By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Just a week into the fourth quarter, merchants and payments companies already are preparing for the busy holiday-shopping season. American Express Co. marks its seventh annual Small Business Saturday—Nov. 26—with the debut of the Shop Small Studio at ShopSmall.com. The service provides merchants with Web-site badges, flyers, …
• 7 October

  Staples Accepts Online Apple Pay and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • Office-supply giant Staples Inc. has begun accepting Apple Pay on its mobile Web site, m.staples.com. Staples early on began accepting Apple Inc.’s mobile wallet in its stores and on its app. Apple recently made the service available for browser-based payments using Safari. • More than half of consumers believe …
• 7 October

  Two Weeks From D-Day, Same-Day ACH Clearing Looks Routine So Far

  By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews For all the widespread anticipation of same-day settlement on the automated clearing house network, the first two weeks of faster processing has been a relatively quiet affair, bank executives and other experts tell Digital Transactions News. But that doesn’t mean a number of pressing questions aren’t …