Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Discover Financial Services reported $1.6 billion in net income in the 2021 first quarter, a reversal of a $61 million loss in the same quarter in 2020. Discover said its payment services volume was $75.9 billion, a 19% increase year-over-year. Dollar volume on its Pulse debit network increased 23% year-over-year, driven …
April, 2021
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21 April
Amazon Expands its Amazon One Pay by Palm Technology to Whole Foods Stores
Amazon.com Inc. is expanding its Amazon One biometric payment technology to Whole Foods stores in Seattle. Amazon, which launched Amazon One in its two Seattle Amazon Go stores last September, will initially roll the technology out to a Whole Foods store near its headquarters and eventually to seven more stores …
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21 April
Online Returns Come to BNPL As Affirm Makes a $300 Million Bid for Specialist Returnly
The buy now, pay later trend has eased online purchases for consumers over the past year, but at the other end of those transactions is the flow of returns after buyers get their merchandise. Now Affirm Holdings Inc., a leading player in the fast-growing BNPL arena has attacked the issue with …
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21 April
Worldline Revenue Drops and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/21/21
French processor Worldline S.A. reported its first-quarter merchant-services revenue dropped 8.7% year-over-year to 517 million euros ($621 million), while its terminals and software unit saw a 16.5% decline to 266 million euros ($320 million). Worldline acquired terminal maker Ingenico Group S.A. in October.FIS Inc. said it has won a domestic acquiring license for its Worldpay …
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20 April
North America Becomes Afterpay’s Largest Market for its Buy Now, Pay Later Services
North America has emerged as the largest sales-generating region for buy now, pay later provider Afterpay Ltd. In the Australia-based company’s latest financial results, North America sales accounted for A$2.6 billion (US$2 billion) in the third quarter ended March 30. Only Australia and New Zealand approach that volume. Overall, Afterpay said …
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20 April
QR Code Use Popularity and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/20/21
Some 83% of consumers said they had used a QR code in the past year to make a payment or complete a financial transaction, with 54% of those persons saying they had used a QR code for those purposes for the first time in only the past three months. Still, just 39% …
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19 April
The New Cantaloupe Looks for Renewed Growth in Vending And Adjacent Unattended Payments Markets
With its name change having become official Monday, Cantaloupe Inc. is looking to start a new chapter in the company’s history as it embarks on a strategy to penetrate new segments of the unattended retail market and grow its business internationally. As part of the change from USA Technologies Inc., …
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19 April
With the Deadline Having Passed, Less Than Half of Sellers Comply With Gas Pump EMV
Saturday has come and gone, and it appears plenty of gas stations—including many branded by major oil companies—are still falling short of chip card acceptance at the pump, despite a deadline for EMV compliance that fell on April 17. Some 48% of fuel and convenience-store sellers have complied with the …
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19 April
San Francisco Becomes the Fourth Transit System to Adopt Cubic’s Contactless Payment App
San Francisco late last week became the fourth city to roll out Cubic Transportation Systems’ mobile contactless-payment application, joining Washington D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles. Consumers can use the white-label app and an iPhone or Apple Watch to purchase tickets from the 24 transit agencies that operate the city’s subway, …
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19 April
Mastercard To Acquire Ekata and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/19/21
Mastercard Inc. said it will acquire Ekata, a digital identity services company, for $850 million. Ekata helps identify good customers and businesses and bad actors in real time, it said. Ekata, formerly the business-to-business unit of Whitepages Pro, spun off in 2019 and adopted the new name. The deal is expected …