U.S. merchants achieved higher performance scores for their gift card programs in 2025, according to Blackhawk Network’s eighth annual review of the programs. Staples Inc. led all merchants with a score of 104%, followed by Amazon.com with a score of 101% and Best Buy Co. Inc. at 99%. Cosmetics retailer …
April, 2025
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11 April
Cash App Penalties Total $40 Million in a New York Settlement
Block Inc. has been ordered to pay a $40-million fine to the state of New York for what the state’s regulator on Thursday called “significant failures in its Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering compliance program, which violated the [New York Department of Financial Services’ money transmitter and virtual currency regulations.” The …
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10 April
How Congress Stymied Mobile App Bills Based on a CFPB Rule
Sweeping regulation that would have impacted all major mobile-payment apps in the United States appears to be headed for the dustbin following action by the House of Representatives Wednesday to vote down a bill based on regulation from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The House action follows a Senate vote …
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10 April
PayPal Unleashes Ferrell Again and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/10/25
PayPal Holdings Inc. said will release a second wave of advertisements with actor Will Ferrell to promote its checkout services, PayPal Pay Later, its buy now, pay later service, and a sweepstakes that will cover, for 1,000 winners for 100 days, up to $100 of their transactions made with PayPal. PayPal launched the …
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9 April
How Helcim Is Accelerating Merchant Funding
Canadian payments provider Helcim Inc. is bringing next-business-day funding of digital payment receipts to small and medium businesses in the United States and Canada free of charge. The service, called Faster Deposits, will significantly speed up merchant access to digital payment receipts by days, the processor says. Most deposits take …
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9 April
Shopify’s Next Step with Affirm and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/9/25
Shopify Inc. said merchants in Canada with what the company calls “early access” can now offer to customers the Shop Pay Installments payments plan, managed by the buy now, pay later platform Affirm Inc. The move expands the plan’s availability beyond the U.S. market. General availability for Shopify merchants is expected this summer …
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8 April
Sezzle’s MoneyIQ Financial Education Program Is a Hit with Consumers
Buy now, pay later provider Sezzle Inc. announced early Monday that users of its MoneyIQ financial-education program are completing an average of 11 modules and have collectively earned more than 5 million experience-rewards points. MoneyIQ, which Sezzle launched with Zogo in January, is a financial-education tool within the Sezzle mobile …
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8 April
Lightspeed’s Retail Forecasting Tool; Ingenico’s SoftPOS Certification
With a renewed emphasis on retail merchants, Lightspeed Commerce Inc. is launching a tool to help retailers data and inventory forecasting. In related news, point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico says its SoftPOS software development kit achieved a PCI Security Standards Council certification. Montreal-based Lightspeed announced the its four-part plan to boost …
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8 April
CellPoint Digital’s Sabre Expansion and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/8/25
CelllPoint Digital, a specialist in payments orchestration, will expand the payment methods available through SabreSonic and Radixx, services offered by Sabre Corp. a travel-technology company. U.S. payments platform Spreedly Inc. said it will work with Ebanx, a payment-service provider, to support alternative payment methods for international firms operating in Latin America. Payments …
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7 April
Forter Unveils a New Routing And Fraud-Fighting Enhancement for Its Platform
Forter, a provider of identity-intelligence technology, announced early Monday several enhancements to its Payment Optimization technology aimed at increasing authorization rates and detecting account-takeover attempts. Forter is testing what it calls a predictive-payment routing app that recommends when and how to use payment authentication, as well as the best processor …
