Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

July, 2020

• 24 July

  ‘Mid-April Was the Trough,’ AmEx Says As It Works to Recover From the Pandemic’s Impact

  

  American Express Co. felt the full brunt of the global Covid-19 pandemic in the opening weeks of the second quarter, and on Friday it released numbers showing just how hard the swoon in travel and other key sectors hit the company. Executives also took time on a conference call with …
• 24 July

  Repay Acquires cPayPlus and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/24/20

  

  Payment processor Repay Holdings Corp. acquired cPayPlus LLC, a provider of accounts-payable automation technology. Repay paid $8 million at closing and could pay $8 million more in 2021’s third quarter depending on cPayPlus’ achievement of growth targets.After a limited release in May, a 3-year-old challenger bank called Dave announced it will issue debit cards …
• 23 July

  A Surge in Online Shopping Leads Citcon to Develop No-Code Plugins for E-Commerce Payments

  

  Payments provider Citcon USA LLC said early Thursday it is unveiling plugins that will allow e-commerce platforms like Commerce Cloud, Magento, Salesforce, Shopify, WooCommerce, and others to offer merchants the ability to accept Alipay, WeChat Pay, and China UnionPay, as well as credit cards, without coding. The development represents a …
• 23 July

  Google Announces Test With No Commissions for Sellers Using Its Shopping Platform

  

  Expanding on an initiative it began April that offered free listings for some merchants, search-engine leader Google on Thursday announced a test that charges zero-percent commissions to online sellers when they sell a product through its Shopping Actions service. In addition, sellers can use Shopify Inc.’s payment service as well …
• 23 July

  75% of Consumers Prefer Contactless Cards and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/23/20

  

  Some 75% of U.S. cardholders prefer contactless cards to card swipe, mobile payment, inserting a chip card, and cash, according to a survey of 1,000 cardholders by card-technology specialist Entrust Datacard.Alliance Data Systems Corp., a provider of private-label card programs, reported a 27% year-over-year drop in revenue for the second quarter to …
• 22 July

  Discover’s Credit Volumes Take a Hit, but the Pulse Debit Network Posts a 12% Increase

  

  Discover Financial Services on Wednesday became the first major payment network operator to report its second-quarter performance, and things weren’t pretty on the credit card side in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Volumes on Discover’s Pulse debit network, however, rose by double digits. Taking the biggest hit was the …
• 22 July

  Don’t Look for Any Near-Term Relief When It Comes to Fraud Losses, LexisNexis Risk Solutions Says

  

  While merchants, banks, and payments providers may be tempted to blame sharply rising fraud rates on the pandemic, fraud losses were rising before Covid-19 set in and will continue to rise for as far as the eye can see, according to experts behind a major fraud report released this week. …
• 22 July

  Shopify Pairs Up With Affirm To Offer an Installment-Payment Option for Small Businesses

  

  The installment-payment movement has gained the big e-commerce services provider Shopify Inc. as a convert with Wednesday’s announcement that Shopify will offer a credit option to its U.S. customers through Affirm Inc. San Francisco-based Affirm, an online credit-services provider, said approved Shop Pay customers at checkout will be able to …
• 22 July

  Small Businesses Continue to Rebound and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/22/20

  

  Sales at small businesses included in the CardFlight Small Business Impact Report for July 22 experienced a 2.6% increase in sales week-over-week and are 25% above the baseline week of March 2-8. Food and drink sales were up 4.5% for the week and retail sales increased 4% week-over-week.Wells Fargo & Co. launched My …
• 21 July

  Synchrony’s Retailers Suffer a Blow to Purchase Volume

  

  The hits merchants are taking from the Covid-19 pandemic were apparent in the second-quarter financial results the big retail and cobranded card issuer Synchrony Financial reported Tuesday, results which include a 19% year-over-year drop in purchase volume. Stamford, Conn.-based Synchrony posted purchase volume of $31.2 billion versus $38.3 billion in …