Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Ever since Visa Inc. released a major policy statement in August regarding chip cards in the United States, observers have waited for the other shoe to fall from competing card networks, especially Visa’s biggest rival, MasterCard Inc. That void began to fill in late on Monday with MasterCard’s release of …
January, 2012
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31 January
To Sign Merchants Nationwide, Square Heads to Campus To Recruit a Sales Force
n San Francisco-based Square posted a notice for a “Square U Representative” position last month on its Web site and has put out reminders about it this month through Twitter as well as a feature story about it on its Facebook page. The job posting indicates the position is …
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30 January
By Harnessing NYCE And a White-Label Strategy, FIS Seeks to Set Its Wallet Apart
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26 January
Shazam Announces Network-Wide Availability of Mobile Acceptance Including PIN Debit
The Shazam electronic funds transfer network on Wednesday announced it is making available across its network a mobile-payments service that lets stores, tradesmen, and other merchants accept PIN-debit transactions as well as credit and signature-debit payments. With the rollout, the service is available to nearly 1,500 member financial institutions and …
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26 January
How Banks’ PR Fiascoes Compromise Their Ability to Recoup Revenue Lost to Durbin
The banks’ defeat on the Durbin Amendment—followed by their hamhanded efforts to recover lost revenue with explicit debit card fees—may have done more than tarnish their image with consumers. It may also have damaged their ability to deploy revenue-generating programs linked to debit cards, according to Beth Robertson, director of …
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25 January
Eye on Prepaid: NetSpend Nets 7-Eleven for Distribution; Green Dot Buys a Processor
Prepaid card program manager NetSpend Holdings Inc. beefed up its retail distribution channels through a new agreement announced on Wednesday with leading convenience-store chain 7-Eleven Inc. The news came just a day after NetSpend rival Green Dot Corp. revealed that it bought assets from eCommLink Inc. that will advance its …
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24 January
Web Merchants See Fraudulent-Order Rate Fall, But the Good News Comes at a High Cost
Online merchants made some progress last year against fraud, but the fight is becoming more and more expensive for them in terms of both dollar losses and operational costs, according to a report issued on Tuesday. Indeed, the news for e-commerce sellers is mixed at best. While fraudulent orders as …
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24 January
With No Credit Card Cushion, TCF Sees Debit Card Revenue Drop 51%
Yet another big debit card issuer, TCF Financial Corp., weighed in with results from the first full quarter of Durbin Amendment debit card interchange price controls, and they weren’t pretty. The Wayzata, Minn.-based regional bank said on Tuesday that card revenue fell 51% to $13.6 million in the fourth quarter …
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23 January
Fraud From Euronet Breach Hits Mag-Stripe Cards, Spares EMV Chip Cards
Payment processor Euronet Worldwide Inc. reported on Monday that part of its European businesses sustained a computer security breach late last year. The disclosure is of interest to the U.S. payments industry as it moves slowly toward adoption of EMV chip cards because most European cards have both a chip …
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19 January
Holiday Post-Mortems Show Healthy Volume Gains, Sagging Average Tickets, Shift to Debit
The post mortems on the holiday shopping season are arriving from major processors, and the emerging picture appears to be one of strong consumer spending but drooping average tickets online, in physical stores, and on merchant-branded gift cards. At least one report also found a switch in consumer preferences in …