Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
An Asian-American businesswoman named Nisha Desai has sued PayPal Holdings Inc. on grounds of racial discrimination, alleging the company restricted some of a $535-million investment commitment to Black and Hispanic candidates. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, asks for unspecified damages and an order …
January, 2025
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3 January
The Payments Industry Works to Solve for X
The payments industry is heading into the new year with a significant question mark hanging over its head: What does it mean that the massive social network X is apparently planning to launch a payments network? Little is known so far about the initiative. A New Year’s Eve post on …
December, 2024
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31 December
WhatsAppPay Rolls Out in India and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/31/24
Meta Platform’s WhatsApp payments service has been permitted by the National Payments Corp. of India, a regulatory body, to roll out WhatsApp Pay to its entire user base of 500 million in that country. Meta formerly was known as Facebook. GasBuddy, which offers a payments card featuring discounts on gasoline, forecasts the …
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26 December
FinCEN BOI Back on and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/26/24
The FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Information mandate is back in force with a recent court decision. That rule, part of the Corporate Transparency Act passed in 2024,had required businesses to file a Beneficial Ownership Information report by Jan. 1, which was delayed earlier in December but now makes these reports due Jan. 13. Businesses formed …
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24 December
Snapchat’s Blackhawk Gift Card Plan and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/24/24
Blackhawk Network will offer physical gift cards to users of Snapchat’s subscription service, Snapchat+. Snapchat is a messaging platform. The digital-payments platform Wirex has added two stablecoins, VNX Euro and VNX Swiss Franc, allowing users to spend the currency directly through their WIrex cards. Payments via QR codes will “shift from one niche …
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24 December
Merchants Hit Back at a Banking Group’s Request That the Fed Hold off on Reducing a Debit Interchange Cap
The Merchants Payments Coalition fired back late Monday at a request last week from the American Bankers Association that the Federal Reserve not act on a proposal to lower a longstanding limit on the interchange banks can earn on debit card transactions. In a letter to the Fed, the MPC …
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23 December
AI, Interchange, And Open Finance Are the Top Prospective 2025 Payments Trends
The outlook for payments in 2025 will be rife with open finance, instant payments, multi-rail payments, interchange questions, and the increasing use of artificial intelligence, observers suggest. The top three payments trends next year will be open finance, instant payments adoption, and point-of-sale innovations, says Capgemini Research Institute in its …
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23 December
An Injunction Against Illinois’s Interchange Act Leaves Both Sides Claiming Victory
United States District Court Judge Virginia Kendell granted a preliminary injunction late Friday that provides banks some relief from the pending Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, but also gives merchants reason to cheer. Kendell, who is overseeing a lawsuit filed against the IIFPA, ruled the injunction applies only to financial …
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23 December
CFPB Sues Walmart, Branch and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/23/24
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has sued Walmart Inc. and Branch Messenger Inc. over allegations of fees for transferring earnings made by individuals in the Walmart Spark Driver program. The CFPB alleges Walmart forced delivery drivers to use Branch deposit accounts. To move funds from these accounts to another drivers faced “a …
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19 December
Consumers Are Struggling to Pay Their Credit Card Bills on Time, J.D. Power Finds
Consumers may not be racking up more revolving credit card debt than they did in 2023, but their ability to pay their bills on time is coming under pressure, according to a report released early Thursday by J.D. Power. Consumers say they are having a harder time paying their bills, …
