Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Is it a cash discount or a surcharge? Some merchant sales agents may now have a little more insight into the answer to that question. Some payments industry observers see no distinction between whether a fee is added or removed from a product’s final price to cover the cost of …
January, 2019
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18 January
AmEx Logs a $2 Billion Fourth-Quarter Profit As Card Volume And Discount Revenue Rise
American Express Co. on Thursday reported a $2 billion profit for the fourth quarter of 2018, representing a significant turnaround from a $1.2 billion loss in the final quarter of 2017. Last year, the New York City-based card giant took a $2.6 billion charge in the fourth quarter that was …
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18 January
Square Launches Card for Merchants and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/18/19
Square Inc. introduced its Square Card for its merchants, a Mastercard-branded business prepaid card issued by Sutton Bank that makes funds in the seller’s Square account available instantly for purchases. Holders of the no-fee dual-interface card get a 2.75% discount when they make purchases at other Square sellers’ locations. Fit …
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17 January
Fiserv’s Planned Acquisition of First Data Raises Questions About the Debit Market’s Future
The proposed merger of Fiserv Inc. and mega-processor First Data Corp. has huge implications for many parts of the payments industry. But the deal, if consummated as planned, could have an especially large effect on the U.S. debit card market. First Data owns the Star electronic funds network, while Fiserv …
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17 January
BitPay Touts Two Straight Years of $1 Billion-Plus in Volume Despite Bitcoin’s Dramatic Collapse
The collapse of Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies in 2018 led to a general feeling of pessimism in the mainstream payments industry about the prospects for digital currencies, but at least one specialist processor apparently bucked the trend toward malaise. In a year-end review of its performance, Atlanta-based BitPay Inc. …
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17 January
WEX’s Latest Acquisition and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/17/19
WEX Inc., a payments and technology provider in the fleet, travel, and health-care sectors, said it has acquired Discovery Benefits Inc., an employee-benefits administrator serving more than 1 million consumers across the country. New York City & Co., the official visitors’ bureau for the city of New York, said it …
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16 January
Fiserv Stuns the Industry With a Massive All-Stock Acquisition of First Data
In a stunning announcement that surprised many observers, Fiserv Inc. said Wednesday morning it has struck a deal to acquire First Data Corp. with what the parties say will be the biggest ever such transaction in the payments and financial-technology businesses. The all-stock deal, expected to close in the third …
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16 January
The PCI Council Unveils Its New Software Security Standards
The PCI Security Standards Council on Wednesday published its new software security standards and said the existing standard will be retired in 2022. The new set of requirements actually has two major components—The PCI Secure Software Standard and the PCI Secure Lifecycle Standard—and is under the umbrella of what the …
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16 January
BofA’s Zelle Volume Booms and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/16/19
Bank of America Corp. reported its customers using the Zelle person-to-person payment network totaled 4.9 million in 2018’s fourth quarter, up by a factor of 2.4 since Zelle’s June 2017 launch. Zelle volume at BofA for the quarter totaled $14 billion on 51.6 million transactions, up from $7 billion on …
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15 January
Contactless Cards Round 2 Gets Another Boost with PenFed Announcement
PenFed Credit Union announced Tuesday it will begin issuing contactless Visa-branded credit and debit cards this month. The move comes after a decision by Chase, a unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co., to issue dual-interface cards that will be in force this year. The cards are called dual interface because …