Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
A new analysis of 10 years’ worth of figures on data breaches reveals that California by far holds the dubious distinction of suffering the most breaches as well as leaking the most records. Meanwhile, a Florida city has agreed to pay hackers about $600,000 in Bitcoin to be released from …
June, 2019
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20 June
Tariff Pressure Takes Aim at Payment Equipment Once Again
While legislators and regulators focused much of their attention on the Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency this week, tariffs on Chinese-made goods re-emerged in Washington as a threat that could raise prices for merchants and merchant acquirers. The Electronic Transactions Association payments trade group filed comments with the Office of the United States …
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20 June
Eye on the Point of Sale: Shopify’s New Features; Casio’s Pay-At-Table Software
Shopify Inc. late on Tuesday announced a slew of services aimed at significantly broadening the support the Ottawa, Ontario-based provider offers to small and mid-size merchants. Among these are new point-of-sale software, a fulfillment network, and new checkout-integrated subscription-payment support. The fulfillment network is a first-of-its-kind offering for Shopify, the company …
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20 June
Allied Payment Debuts Bill-Payment Tech and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/20/19
Online and mobile bill-payment provider Allied Payment Network announced what it says is a “first of its kind” real-time digital bill-payment technology. The company developed the product in collaboration with Finastra, a software provider to financial institutions. Payments provider International Bancard said it was named the official credit card processor …
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19 June
Chip Cards Make Gains, but the U.S. Still Lags Most of the World in EMV Adoption
EMV chip card payments made substantial gains in the U.S. last year, but the nation still lags most other regions in EMV penetration, according to new figures from payment card standards body EMVCo. Some 53.5% of general-purpose U.S. card-present transactions in 2018 were so-called chip-on-chip, meaning both the point-of-sale terminal …
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19 June
Commercial Bank of California’s Big ISO Ambitions
Commercial Bank of California’s announcement Tuesday that Group ISO Inc. joined its wholesale independent sales organization program signals greater ambitions for the Irvine, Calif.-based bank. Group ISO will use CBC’s BIN sponsorship, a term for bank identification numbers, which is required for acquirers to send and receive transactions from card …
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19 June
Regulators Balk at Facebook’s Libra and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/19/19
The Facebook-led announcement of the Libra cryptocurrency is evoking blowback both in the United States and overseas. House Financial Services Committee chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) called for Facebook to halt the planned launch of Libra until Congress has had a chance to hold hearings on the cryptocurrency. Elsewhere, the governor …
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18 June
Facebook And 27 Other Companies Announce Libra, a New Blockchain-Backed Crypto Coin
An association of major payments and technology companies will launch a blockchain-based digital currency called Libra some time in the first half of next year, according to an official announcement on Tuesday. The new initiative, some details about which have leaked in recent days, has the backing of Facebook Inc. …
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18 June
Can MoneyGram And Ripple, ‘Two Wounded Ducks,’ Take Flight With Their New Pact?
Its long-term prospects for success are unclear, but the investment and cross-border payments partnership struggling wire-transfer provider MoneyGram International Inc. announced late Monday with blockchain-services developer Ripple Labs Inc. certainly produced a short-term bang by doubling the value of MoneyGram’s beaten-down stock. As part of the deal, Ripple invested $30 …
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18 June
Celero Commerce’s Two Acquisitions and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/18/19
Celero Commerce announced two acquisitions, those of Elmhurst Financial Services and Tandem Innovative Payment Solutions. Following the deals—financial terms were not disclosed for either—Celero will have approximately 25,000 merchants and process approximately $10 billion in annual payment volume. Payment Alliance International said it acquired ISA-ECash, an ATM operator and developer …