As stock markets swoon in the face of the novel coronavirus outbreak and its effects, prices for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are sliding as well, disproving at least for now the idea that cryptos can serve as a so-called safe haven for investors. Bitcoin, the leading digital currency, was trading at …
Read More »Eye on Acquiring: Revel Starts Merchant Hardship Fund; SEAA Conference Moves to June
The unprecedented impact of dealing with the coronavirus outbreak encircling the globe has hit close to the payments industry. Several conferences have been postponed or canceled, and one vendor has set up a relief fund for merchants. Point-of-sale system maker Revel Systems Inc. created the Revel Relief Program, which can help …
Read More »OTG Experience To Use Amazon Go Tech and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/13/20
Airport restaurant and retail operator OTG Experience LLC says it will be one of the first retailers to use Amazon.com Inc.’s “Just Walk Out” cashierless technology, the system that powers Amazon’s Amazon Go stores, when it opens a CIBO Express Gourmet Market next week in Terminal C of Newark Liberty International Airport.A technology …
Read More »Eye on Covid-19: Payments Providers Hunker Down As an ATM Group Decries ‘The Scapegoating of Cash’
The electronic-payments industry is settling into a ride-it-out mode as panic selling resumed Thursday on Wall Street over the coronavirus, now deemed a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 1,700 points, and most payments stocks went over the cliff with it. In late-morning …
Read More »Western Union’s Law-Firm Payment Service and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/10/20
The Western Union Co. launched WU Incoming Payments for Legal, a service aimed at allowing U.S. law firms to accept foreign payments without bank-processing fees.Payments provider Usio Inc. said InsureSmith, which provides insurance brokerage software products, integrated Usio’s PayFac-in-a-Box service to enable users to pay premiums directly through the InsureSmith platform.E-commerce services provider Signifyd announced …
Read More »SurchX Sold to InterPrivate and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/9/20
Private-equity firm InterPrivate LLC announced the acquisition of SurchX, a payments provider offering surcharging programs. SurchX was renamed InterPayments. Terms were not disclosed.ParTech Inc., a subsidiary of PAR Technology Corp., announced an application programming interface integration with eTouchMenu, a digital-menu provider, and ParTech’s Brink POS software.Priority Payment Systems, a subsidiary of …
Read More »Square’s Dorsey Reconsidering His Africa Relocation and other Digital Transactions New briefs from 3/6/20
Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and chief executive of Twitter Inc. who also is the CEO of merchant processor Square Inc., told an investor conference he is reconsidering his plan to spend much of his time this year in Africa because of Covid-19, the coronavirus, “and everything else going on,” Bloomberg …
Read More »With Visa Issuing a Revenue Warning, the Coronavirus Takes a Further Toll on Payments Companies
With some of its payments cohorts already having warned the coronavirus would hurt their businesses, it was no surprise Visa Inc. joined the crowd Monday in forecasting reduced cardholder spending would translate into lower revenues. More signs of growing concern about the impact of the virus, officially named Covid-19, on …
Read More »Cash App Helps Drive Growth for a Surging Square
Cash App may be turning into the product that ate Square Inc. The company on Wednesday reported a big fourth quarter for the 4-year-old product as officials pointed to a strong performance overall for the full year. “2019 was a very good year for us,” Square chief executive Jack Dorsey …
Read More »More Details About FedNow Expected in Coming Months
The release date for the Federal Reserve’s planned FedNow real-time payments service is still three or four years off, but more details about its features will be released in the coming months, according to a Federal Reserve official. “This year we do plan to make an announcement based on … …
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