Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. said it will provide a Bluetooth reader capable of EMV and contactless mobile payments to Mary Kay Cosmetics Ltd. consultants in Canada. The reader works with Apple and Android smart phones and tablets.
• Global payments platform Payza has integrated Canada’s Interac debit network, allowing Canadian Payza users to fund their accounts and pay businesses worldwide using Interac to transfer funds.
• USA Technologies Inc., a provider of payment services for unattended merchant locations, said Canteen franchisee A&A Vending Services is upgrading 1,200 vending machines to accept mobile payments as well as payment cards under an expanded agreement; nearly 520 of the machines have been connected to USAT’s ePort Connect network in the past four months.
• Oberthur Technologies said its dual-interface EMV cards have been certified by Discover Financial Services on the network’s D-Payment Application Specification (D-PAS), version 1.1, and can be used globally on the network, which includes Discover, Diners Club International, and Pulse.
• Yantra Financial Technologies, a developer of electronic payment systems, introduced BlastPay, a tool that allows lenders to streamline disbursements of funds to borrowers via cards and the automated clearing house network.
• Citigroup Inc., the new issuer of Costco Wholesale Corp.’s cobranded credit card, on Friday mistakenly sent e-mails to a “small portion” of Costco customers telling them that their Costco memberships had lapsed and their credit cards would be cancelled, Bloomberg reported. Citi said the emails were meant for customers who hadn’t renewed their memberships and that it quickly sent alerts to the affected customers that their memberships remain active.
• Vesta Corp., a developer of payments solutions for card-not-present merchants, released a white paper entitled “A Merchant’s Guide to Successfully Selling Digital Goods.”
• Processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) appointed Karim Ahmad executive vice president of global product and innovation, effective Sept. 6. Ahmad comes to TSYS from consultancy Bain & Co.
• Newtek Business Services Corp. said its Newtek Merchant Solutions payment-processing unit hired former First Data Corp. executive Andrew T. Cohen as senior vice president of business development; Cohen most recently was chief financial officer of First Data’s joint merchant-processing venture with Wells Fargo & Co. Newtek also hired Michelle A. Flaherty, formerly of EVO Payments International LLC, as vice president of human resources.
