Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
You thought your refrigerator was just for storing and cooling your food? Think again. MasterCard Inc. says it has introduced the first app that lets a consumer buy groceries from a refrigerator. The app is preloaded into Samsung’s new, high-tech Family Hub refrigerator that features a 21.5-inch touchscreen as well …
January, 2016
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4 January
Wall Street Gave a Thumbs Up to Payments Companies in 2015
It was a lousy December for payment stocks, but 2015 as a whole saw shares of electronic transaction processors far outperform the major market indexes, according to a new report from Chicago-based investment firm Barrington Research Associates Inc. Shares of 28 payments companies posted a mean return of 11.47% last …
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4 January
Looming Federal Rules Lend Note of Caution to Strong Outlook for Prepaid Card Market
Open-loop financial-services prepaid cards will be one of the fastest-growing segments for prepaid over the next two years, forecasts the “12th Annual U.S. Prepaid Cards Market Forecasts, 2015-2018,” recently released by Mercator Advisory Group Inc. The report, which gauges the growth potential of both open-loop and closed-loop prepaid cards, also …
December, 2015
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30 December
The Data-Breach Seesaw: Card Compromises Down, Social Security Exposures Up
Data breaches that compromised credit and debit card information were constantly in the news in 2015, but the number of cards affected is way down from the totals for 2014 and 2013, according to a nonprofit that monitors breaches. The San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center reports that as of …
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29 December
New Visa Security Requirements Aim To Reduce Small Merchants’ Data Breaches
Visa Inc. has announced new data-security requirements for small merchants, one of which says that beginning Jan. 31, 2017, merchant acquirers must annually validate compliance by their so-called Level 4 merchants with the Payment Card Industry data security standard. Other new Visa requirements involve qualified integrators and resellers, or QIRs. …
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28 December
New President Cohen Says Payments-Industry Changes Affecting ETA Mission
As 2016 beckons, multiple challenges and opportunities await the payments industry and the Electronic Transactions Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group that represents the merchant-acquiring and -processing industry. Incoming ETA board president Greg Cohen says the association, and the payments industry it represents, are in the midst of a transformation …
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22 December
Digital Versions Will Help Propel a Strong Holiday Season for Closed-Loop Gift Cards
By John Stewart Market signals may be mixed, but on balance the 2015 holiday season will be a merry one for plastic and digital gift cards, according to Mercator Advisory Group. The Maynard, Mass.-based research firm’s annual forecast for November and December estimates loads on closed-loop U.S. gift cards will …
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21 December
First Wal-Mart. Now Target? What Retailer Wallets Mean for MCX’s CurrentC App
With Target Corp. reportedly planning its own mobile wallet, the nation’s fourth-largest retailer may some time next year join the largest, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., in launching a proprietary wallet app. That could not only add to the fragmentation of the nascent digital-wallet market, it could also indicate weakening attachment to …
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21 December
E-Commerce Is Garnering a Higher Percentage of Total Holiday Sales, Says First Data
More consumers appear to be at ease shopping online, at least during the holiday season. Online sales account for 20.6% of total sales since Oct. 31, says First Data Corp. For the same period last year, e-commerce sales accounted for 17.8% of total sales. The share of retail sales attributed …
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18 December
The PCI Security Standards Council Extends a Key Encryption Deadline by Two Years
By John Stewart Acting in response to comment from the industry, the PCI Security Standards Council has extended a key security deadline for payments processors, merchants, and banks by fully two years. These players now have until June 30, 2018, to stop using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption and instead …