Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The direct carrier billing business has been consolidating for the last few years, and on Monday the latest deal confirmed that surviving players are still willing to pay for volume. London-based carrier biller Bango said it had acquired a major rival, Danal Inc.’s BilltoMobile service, from San Jose, Calif.-based Danal, …
May, 2016
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9 May
PayPal Trims Buyer Protection and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• PayPal Holdings Inc. no longer will provide purchase protection for transactions made on crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter, potentially dealing a blow to the nascent crowdfunding industry, CNBC reported. • In a letter to Green Dot Corp. shareholders, Harvest Capital Strategies, which owns 9.3% of Green Dot, said it …
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6 May
Jumbo Acquirer Pricing Advantage Dissipating: Report
Pricing advantages once held by super-large acquirers—those whose merchants process more than 3 million monthly credit and debit transactions—appear to have retreated, according to the Merchant Processing Pricing Benchmark Study recently issued by The Strawhecker Group. These jumbo acquirers had, on average, the lowest amounts for their processing and authorization …
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6 May
Wall Street Punishes Square Despite the Merchant Processor’s Transaction Growth
Ouch. Merchant acquirer Square Inc. reported after Thursday’s market close that payment volume grew 45% year over year in the first quarter to $10.3 billion, but the company’s stock still fell 22% on Friday. Despite the strong payments growth, investors didn’t like a number of things they saw in San …
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5 May
Customer Contact Centers Are the “Fraud-Enablement Channel,” Researcher Says
With the rollout of EMV chip cards in the United States shrinking opportunities for criminals to use counterfeit cards at the point of sale, fraud rings are turning their attention to customer-contact centers as a way to fraudulently order replacement credit and debit cards and take over consumer accounts. More …
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5 May
Square’s Payment Volume Jumps 45%, but Growth Measures Cause Loss To Widen
Boosted by a 45% increase in payment volume to $10.3 billion, Square Inc.’s adjusted revenues jumped 64% in the first quarter, but the merchant processor’s net loss doubled to $96.8 million on higher expenses as the company continued to invest like a startup for future growth. In its second earnings …
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4 May
Samsung Pay Adds Card Issuers and Brings Verizon on Board
For merchants these days, laying hands on a payment terminal with the needed EMV certifications is hard enough. Finding a certified device with built-in intelligence is even harder. Against that backdrop, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup called Poynt Co. on Thursday announced its Poynt Smart Terminal is the first such …
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4 May
How the Details Strongly Influence Merchant-Portfolio Valuations
Independent sales organizations and merchant-services salespeople considering selling all or part of their merchant portfolios have to consider more than finding the right buyer, said a panel of acquiring specialists. While some portfolio valuations might spike as high as the 40s—referring to a multiple of the net monthly processing revenue—that’s not …
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4 May
Bitcoin Processor BitPay Introduces a Prepaid Visa Card
BitPay Inc. made its name signing up merchants to accept the bitcoin digital currency, and now it’s adding a reloadable Visa prepaid card to its consumer-facing products. The card will enable users to make purchases at the millions of Visa-accepting merchants as well as the relative handful that accept bitcoin, …
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4 May
Kohl’s Brings Loyalty To Apple Pay and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• Retailer Kohl’s says customers can now pay for purchases using their Kohl’s Charge accounts and earn points in its Yes2You Rewards program in approximately 250 stores with a single tap using Apple Pay. Kohl’s expects national availability later this month. Kohl’s says it is the first retailer to offer a …