Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• Citing “changes in the market and an increasing number of mobile payment and banking options available” from financial institutions, the telco-led Canadian mobile-payments service suretap is shutting down as of Aug. 26, according to its Web site. The move follows the January 2015 failure of a similar telco-controlled venture in the U.S., Softcard, and the decision in June by Merchant Customer Exchange, a merchant-controlled venture, to close its CurrentC mobile wallet.
• Processor First Data Corp. announced it is combining its Clover line of point-of-sale devices with cloud-based software from a startup called Bypass to bring payments processing to sports arenas and concert venues.
• Merchant processor Elavon has signed a multiyear agreement with Capital Bank Financial Corp. that expands on a relationship originally formed in December 2005 to offer payments processing to the regional bank’s business clients.
• Payment gateway USAePay says CDE Services Inc., which offers point-of-sale equipment management services, will provide key-injection services for the PaySaber MP200 contactless EMV device.
• Bitcoin processor Bitnet Technologies Ltd., founded in January 2014 by a pair of former CyberSource Corp. executives, is in talks to sell its intellectual property to Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten, according to reports.
• HID Global Corp., a unit of Assa Abloy, purchased DemoTeller, an instant-issuing provider for payment cards. Terms were not disclosed.
• The Western Union Co. has expanded its Enterprise Digital Global Exchange (EDGE) cross-border payments platform from its initial six markets (U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore) to seven new markets (Hong Kong, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic). The company says EDGE makes it possible to make an international business payment “in minutes.”
• The IFX Forum said its architecture committee met recently to address how banks can increase access to their data using standardized methods rather than proprietary application programming interfaces (APIs). The Forum is an international body that promotes open, interoperable standards for financial data exchange.
