Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

April, 2014

• 30 April

  First Data Reduces Loss Despite Merchant-Acquiring and Debit Card Headwinds

  Leading payment card processor First Data Corp. on Wednesday reported it lost less money in the first quarter than it did a year earlier despite price compression in its merchant-acquiring business and slow debit card transaction growth. Atlanta-based First Data typically posts an operating profit but a net loss after …
• 29 April

  Host Card Emulation Takes Another Step with Key Sequent Software Issuance Solution

  Sequent Software Inc. on Tuesday launched a solution that will let card issuers take advantage of so-called host card emulation, a protocol that allows issuers to provision digital cards for mobile payments while bypassing the phone-based secure element. With the new solution, issuers will also be able to embed their …
• 29 April

  Target Opts for MasterCard’s Chip Technology for All of Its Cards And at the Point of Sale

  Target Corp. is making good on its plans to accelerate chip-and-PIN payment card technology in its stores and among its customers with Monday’s announcement that it will move its entire Redcard credit and debit card portfolio to cards that use MasterCard Inc.’s chip-and-PIN technology. Most of Target’s cards, however, will …
• 29 April

  PayPal Enjoys Another Strong Quarter, Though eBay Boss Says Little About Offline Growth

  EBay Inc.’s first-quarter conference call Tuesday was as remarkable for what chief executive John Donahoe did not say as for what he did say. Asked by a stock analyst for an update on PayPal Inc.’s move into physical stores, Donahoe added little to what eBay and its PayPal unit have …
• 24 April

  Chirrpy’s Mobile Ticketing Service Eyes ISO Sales Channel To Reach New Merchants

  Independent sales organizations and acquirers considering mobile ticketing as a value-add service to sell to merchants have a new option. n The service works like this. Merchants use a Web portal to set up their events, including details about the name, Web site, times, available tickets, and pricing. Chirrpy also …
• 24 April

  Vesta Debuts New Gateway for E-retailers in Advance of Expected Jump in Card-Not-Present Fraud

  Card-not-present merchants contending with the double-digit growth of e-commerce and mobile commerce often face more exposure to fraudulent transactions. Vesta Corp., an Alpharetta, Ga.-based payments-security company, says its new payment gateway vSafe can help reduce that fraud. n The gateway relies on data from more than 1 billion transactions made …
• 24 April

  PayPal Recruiting More Resellers Among ISOs, Acquirers, ISVs, VARs for M-Commerce Push

    PayPal, the payments arm of online marketplace eBay Inc., has put out a call for more resellers, including independent sales organizations, acquirers, independent software vendors, and value-added resellers. PayPal, which has set up a dedicated Web page soliciting partners, says its ideal partners include “folks that share a similar …
• 24 April

  Seeking to Become More User-Friendly, Visa Will Eliminate Half of Its Operating Rules

  In an effort to become easier for merchant acquirers, merchants, and card issuers to deal with, Visa Inc. late this year will eliminate almost 50% of its operating rules, which currently total more than 1,500 pages, chief executive Charles W. Scharf said Thursday. Scharf made that revelation at Visa’s second-quarter …
• 23 April

  Visa’s FANF Revision Could Take a High Toll on Aggregators When It Kicks in Next Year

  A revised set of network fees from Visa Inc. could hit merchant aggregators hard when the revisions take effect next April, according to payments-industry sources. Depending on the size and number of aggregators’ sponsored merchants, the revisions could significantly boost actual fee payments as well as drive up programming and …
• 22 April

  It’s ‘Fits and Starts’ in Mobile-Payments Evolution, Finds An IDC Survey

    An industry as intrinsic to commerce as electronic payments is unlikely to make wholesale moves to new technologies like mobile payments. That applies to consumers, too, who appear to be moderating their use of mobile payments. Data from the IDC Financial Insights 2014 Consumer Payments Survey reveal that consumer …