Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

November, 2017

• 8 November

  With Gift Cards, Consumers Are Spending Much More Than the Gift Amount

  

  Gift card recipients spend on average $38 more than the value of their gift cards, a $10 increase from 2016, says First Data Corp. in its “2017 Prepaid Consumer Insights Study” released Wednesday by the giant processor. Based on the responses of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers, the report found …
• 8 November

  Volume from New Software Ventures Grows for Global Payments as ISO Business Fades

  

  Global Payments Inc. was one of the first merchant acquirers to identify the payments opportunities in pairing up with independent software vendors and related firms that serve businesses with all manner of applications, and now those channels are bringing in 40% of revenues, chief executive Jeff Sloan said Wednesday. That …
• 8 November

  Buoyed by a Strong Quarter, Green Dot Prepares Launches of Apple Pay Cash And Intuit Programs

  

  Prepaid program manager Green Dot Corp. logged a strong quarter and now looks forward to big results from fresh deals with Apple Inc. and Intuit Inc., chief executive Steven W. Streit told stock analysts on Tuesday. Speaking on the same day Apple released a so-called public beta version of its …
• 8 November

  Phoenix Group Sold to Ingram Micro and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 11/8/17

  

  NCR Corp. launched the NCR Silver Quantum point-of-sale system that features an integrated payment device with mobile wallet acceptance, a customer loyalty program, and a scanner that are loaded onto a Samsung Galaxy Tab A tablet. NCR Silver Quantum, in addition to the NCR Silver POS software, is the first …
• 7 November

  As the Holiday-Shopping Season Looms, E-Retailers Face Rising Security Challenges

  

  The fourth-quarter holiday shopping season may be a big present in the form of more sales for retailers, but it may also bring with it a lump of coal in the form of amped-up cyberattacks and fraud attempts. Two of the most beneficial measures retailers can take to secure their …
• 7 November

  AmEx Launches Analytical Service and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 11/7/17

  

  USA Technologies Inc., which provides payment technology for unattended merchant locations, announced it has an $85 million cash and stock deal to acquire Cantaloupe Systems, a San Francisco-based software provider serving the vending-machine industry. Cantaloupe operates in the U.S., Canada, and several international markets, and its Seed Cloud applications include …
• 6 November

  Frequency of Breaches Points up Limited Capabilities of Cybersecurity Teams, Survey Says

  

  Data breaches have grown so frequent that at least some observers have begun to question whether cybersecurity staffs within corporate and government entities are up to the challenge of stopping them. “You just have to look at the continued ubiquity of breaches in the headlines to know that we’re losing …
• 6 November

  Affirm Launches Travel Payments Program and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 11/6/17

  

  Consumers who want to use cash online can now load an Amazon Cash account at U.S. 7-Eleven Inc. stores by presenting cash and a personalized Amazon barcode to the cashier. Users can load between $15 and $500 in a single transaction, with no fees, 7-Eleven says. The company has nearly …
• 3 November

  Wal-Mart And Visa Settle Lawsuits Over Debit Routing and Credit Card Interchange

  

  Wal-Mart Stores Inc. confirmed Friday that it will settle its lawsuit against Visa Inc. over EMV debit card transaction routing. That news comes one day after the two leaders in their respective industries settled lawsuits they filed against each other stemming from the massive and still-ongoing credit card interchange litigation …
• 3 November

  COMMENTARY: How To Avoid a Hidden Retail Security Threat

  

  In 2015, 70% of breaches reported by global retailers were directed at POS devices. With the quantity of exploits only increasing, retail CIOs cannot rely on industry minimum guidelines to set out their security strategy. While the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI DSS) provides a strong baseline of security …