News

December, 2015

• 4 December

  The ACH Continues to Sizzle, Racking up Nearly 6% Growth in the Third Quarter

  By John Stewart It operates so much in the background that many payments professionals may not have noticed, but the automated clearing house network is on a hot streak. The 41-year-old system notched a 5.9% year-over-year increase in transactions in the quarter ended Sept. 30, reaching a total of 4.83 …
• 3 December

  Groceries, Drug Stores, C-Stores Yawn at Mobile Payments, Focus on E-Commerce

  By John Stewart What kind of technology are grocery stores, drug stores, and convenience stores most interested in? Not mobile payments, at least not right now. That’s the conclusion of the Los Angeles-based Center for Advancing Retail & Technology LLC, which operates an online marketplace of retail solutions for merchants …
• 2 December

  What’s in Your (Digital) Wallet? Chances Are, At Least One Proprietary Card

  By John Stewart Ever since the launch of Apple Pay more than a year ago, mobile wallets have followed a pattern of recruiting financial institutions to enable their network-branded credit and debit cards to work in the wallet apps. But retailers are getting in on this action, as well, with …
• 2 December

  A Holiday Rebound: Shoppers Back on Track, First Data’s Transaction Report Says

  Consumer shopping during the Thanksgiving-holiday weekend increased 9.4%, almost tripling the growth rate last year, according to card-transaction data released by First Data Corp. In 2014, the holiday-shopping weekend grew by 3.5% over 2013. The Atlanta-based processor analyzed the volume of transactions made at more than 820,000 merchant locations that …
• 2 December

  ComScore: Cyber Monday Spending Surpasses $3 Billion as M-Commerce Grows 53%

  It looks like Cyber Monday came through for e-commerce payment processors, if the latest spending numbers from comScore Inc. hold true. ComScore reported Wednesday that spending from desktop computers and smart phones and tablets on Nov. 30 hit $3.12 billion, a 21% increase from $2.59 billion on 2014’s Cyber Monday. …
• 2 December

  Attorneys Announce $39 Million Settlement for Target Data-Breach Class Action

  Attorneys for financial-institution plaintiffs suing Target Corp. to recoup their costs arising from Target’s massive 2013 data breach announced a $39.4 million settlement on Wednesday intended to bring their class-action lawsuit against the big-box retailer to an end. A U.S. District Court judge in St. Paul, Minn., was expected to …
• 1 December

  Luxury Items Top Online Fraudster Wish Lists, But So Do Business Services

  Just like law-abiding consumers, criminals hope to score good deals during the holiday shopping season. And luxury items and business services, such as hosting plans and search engine optimization, top their lists, finds an analysis by Forter, a San Francisco-based fraud-prevention specialist. In a report released on Monday, Forter analyzed …

November, 2015

• 30 November

  Black Friday Continues As an Online Hit, But Thanksgiving Not Far Behind

  Holiday shoppers took advantage of online deals on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, ringing up $2.8 billion in sales for retailers, according to research firm comScore Inc. Online sales on Thanksgiving topped $1.1 billion, a 9% increase from $1 billion in 2014. Black Friday sales of $1.7 …
• 30 November

  PayPal Steadies Itself After the Cyber Monday Crush Rocks Its Payments Service

  By John Stewart It was bad, but it could have been much worse. Just as the celebrated Cyber Monday online-shopping frenzy was gearing up to full blast, PayPal Holdings Inc.’s payment service, a major processor for e-commerce, began hiccupping. Merchants reported problems with processing orders and customers complained about long …
• 25 November

  Retailers, Restaurants Outpace Other Merchant Types for Awareness of EMV And Liability

  Retailers and restaurants have a higher degree of awareness about EMV and its accompanying liability shift than other merchant types, finds the Paychex Small Business Survey, released Tuesday. In the survey of more than 760 small-business owners between Oct. 14 and Oct. 27, 69% of those in retail and restaurants …