Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a U.S. Department of Justice request to reconsider a decision by a three-judge panel of the appellate court that, by reversing a lower-court ruling, allows American Express Co. to prevent its merchants from encouraging customers to use lower-cost forms of payment than AmEx cards.
• Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. reported a 58% increase in adjusted net revenue, from $518.3 million to $817.2 million, for its fiscal second quarter ended Nov. 30. Adjusted earnings per share for the period increased 17%, to 89 cents. CEO Jeff Sloan reported the company achieved these results while also absorbing processor Heartland Payments, which it acquired in December 2015.
• Diebold Nixdorf has introduced its Extreme Self-Checkout Concept, a device that measures one-and-a-half times the width of a dollar bill and functions as an ATM, point-of-sale terminal, and self-checkout unit. The device accepts cash, cards, and EMV and contactless payments.
• The CardLinx Association announced software is now publicly available on its Web site that permits companies to automatically link offers and rewards to payment cards. The open-source codebase was developed by Microsoft Corp., a founding member of the association, for its Earn card-linking platform.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture said seven grocers will test services enabling Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants to purchase groceries online. The pilot will test online ordering and payment. SNAP participants will be able to pay for items using their benefits, but not for delivery or service charges.
• In its SpendTrend report summing up the 2016 holiday season, processor First Data Corp. says card-based retail e-commerce transactions grew 12% year-over year and that 21.3% of all holiday spending was conducted online versus 15.4% in 2015. Overall consumer card spending increased 4.7% during the season.
• Datacap Systems Inc. said it completed EMV level 3 certification with processor Chase Paymentech on two Equinox point-of-sale terminals.
• Merchant processor iPayment Inc. has named Philip Ragona executive vice president and general counsel. Ragona rejoins the company, where he served as senior vice president and general counsel from April 2012 to May 2015.
