Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

April, 2019

• 3 April

  C-Stores Saw Card-Acceptance Costs Rise Faster Than Sales in 2018

  

  Convenience stores saw their payment card acceptance costs rise nearly 10% in 2018 even though sales increased only 9%, according to data reported Wednesday by the trade association NACS. NACS, formerly known as the National Association of Convenience stores, says credit and debit card fees paid by its members rose …
• 3 April

  Eye on Crypto: FitPay Starts Shipping Flip; InstaMed Prototypes a Blockchain Payment App

  

  FitPay Inc. has started shipping its contactless, coin-shaped Flip device, which allows users to spend Bitcoin as U.S. dollars at stores. The company said on Wednesday it plans to “ramp up” production of Flip though the first half of the year. The news comes after Fit Pay announced in January …
• 3 April

  Card Fees Increase 9.9% for C-Stores and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/3/19

  

  Payment card fees paid by convenience stores last year rose 9.9% to $11.1 billion from $10.1 billion in 2017, NACS, formerly the National Association of Convenience Stores, says in its newly released State of the Industry report. The increase in card fees outpaced 2018’s 8.9% increase in total sales, to …
• 3 April

  Payments Companies Get off to a Strong Start on Wall Street in 2019

  

  Publicly-traded payments companies once again have rewarded their investors, with a basket of shares from 29 firms posting a mean, or average, return of 23.6% in the first quarter to handily beat three major market indexes, according to Chicago-based Barrington Research Associates Inc. The market is rebounding in 2019, with …
• 2 April

  How Apple Card Heralds a Push for Greater Digital Authentication—And for Apple Pay

  

  Apple Inc.’s forthcoming Apple Card is another push from the computing giant to move payments into a digital realm under Apple’s control, according to analysts. Apple last week announced the card, which bears a Mastercard Inc. brand and will be issued by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The product, which eschews …
• 2 April

  Wells Fargo Debuts Tap-and-Go Cards and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/2/19

  

  Wells Fargo & Co. has introduced contactless credit and debit cards for point-of-sale transactions. Information on how many cards will be issued was not immediately available. Tapping at ATMs will be introduced nationwide later this year at more than 13,000 machines, the bank said. Advanced Solutions International, a software developer …
• 1 April

  The Prepaid Business Adopts a Sanguine Approach As the CFPB’s Big Rule Finally Takes Effect

  

  A day long dreaded by the U.S. payments industry came and went on Monday with little fanfare and not much more gnashing of teeth. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s voluminous prepaid card rule finally took effect with sweeping provisions governing matters ranging from fee disclosures to error-resolution rights to consumers’ …
• 1 April

  Nearly a Third of Americans Don’t Mind Mailing a Check to the Government for Taxes Owed

  

  April is a month when most Americans think about taxes. It turns out that a surprising number of them—29%—would rather mail a check to the government than use electronic methods. That’s the word from payment technology provider ACI Worldwide Inc., which in March commissioned YouGov Plc, a global research firm …
• 1 April

  Stolen Payment Cards For Sale Linked to Breach at Restaurant Operator Earl Enterprises

  

  Mark the latest data breach as another conquest for hackers. Earl Enterprises, owner of the Buca di Beppo, Bertucci’s, Planet Hollywood, and the Earl of Sandwich restaurant chains, among others, said point-of-sale malware captured credit and debit card information from May 23, 2018, through March 18, 2019, at a variety …
• 1 April

  Another Bank Adds Zelle and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/1/19

  

  Huntington Bank launched the Zelle peer-to-peer payments service on its mobile and online banking service. Payment Data Systems Inc. said its FiCentive subsidiary will provide its Akimbo commercial prepaid Mastercard-branded cards to the Bowen Center, a behavioral-health company. Zapt, an on-demand platform that lets customers schedule household moves, said it …