Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Ransomware payments exploded last year, with the average payment rising 78% year-over-year to $541,010, according to data compiled by cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks.Blackbaud Inc., a cloud software company serving nonprofits, said clients of its Blackbaud Merchant Services unit can now accept payments via both PayPal and Venmo in the United …

The popularity of debit cards for card-not-present transactions, particularly online payments, is surging, and a new proposal from an industry trade group could expand that popularity while preventing fraud and facilitating merchants’ transaction-routing choices. The proposal is contained in a white paper released Tuesday by the U.S. Payments Forum, an …

Mastercard Inc. early Wednesday said it will launch two new payments tools that rely on the card network’s rapidly growing stake in open banking and account-to-account transactions. The new digital tools, which Mastercard says will not be available until later this year, are expected to address risk and uncertainty in …

The Brink’s Co. said its BLUbeem point-of-sale cash-management platform is now available through the Clover POS technology from Fiserv Inc.Paysign Inc., a provider of prepaid cards for the health-care industry, reported $8.8 million in fourth quarter 2021 revenue, a 21% increase year-over-year. Purchase volume in the quarter rose 13.2%. Cardholders totaled 4.3 million at …

POSaBIT Systems Corp., a payments provider for the legal cannabis industry, today added Texas and Georgia to its roster of states in which the fintech operates. The expansion provides further confirmation of growing demand for electronic payments in marijuana dispensaries. Kirkland, Wash.-based POSaBIT said in a news release that it …

The buy now, pay later concept is nothing new, but it took on momentum during the pandemic and may now undergo unstoppable growth in the next few years, according to RBC equity analyst Dan Perlin, who analyzed data on BNPL contained in the 2022 Global Payments Report recently released by …

Payments provider Trust Payments launched Stor, an e-commerce platform for small and medium-size businesses, and is inviting independent sales organizations, banks, and other third-party players to market the service to merchants. The new product is based on technology Trust Payments acquired earlier this year.NoFraud, an online fraud prevention service, released NoFraud Checkout, …

The fast-growing field of open banking got another boost Monday when the big payment processor Fiserv Inc. announced a major industry player, MX Technologies Inc., will use its AllData Connect service. AllData Connect is part of Fiserv’s AllData Aggregation platform that provides consumer-permitted access to tokenized financial account and transaction …

The world’s biggest card networks earlier this month reacted to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by closing their operations in Russia, and now some of the world’s biggest processors are beginning to report their exposure to those markets. For Paris-based Worldline S.A., it’s not trivial, but it’s not huge, either. …

Mobile point-of-sale provider FreedomPay said it has signed Sephora USA, a retail chain offering beauty products at more than 500 stores.The total value of consumer credit card rewards globally will rise 15% to $108 billion by 2026 from $92 billion this year, fueled by increasing adoption of cobranded cards issued by merchants, according to …

Boosted by strong growth in its automated clearing house services, credit card acquiring, and other business lines, merchant processor Usio Inc. reported Thursday that its total dollars processed grew 215% in 2021’s fourth quarter from a year earlier and 184% for the full year. San Antonio, Texas-based Usio processed $9.5 …

A new, $1-million limit takes effect on Friday for same-day processing of automated clearing house transactions. The new cap, 10 times higher than the former one, is expected to open the ACH for faster processing of more large-value transfers and is seen as a landmark move toward faster payments as …

Cannabis-payments platform CanPay said it has passed half a billion dollars in transactions, processing for more than 800 merchant locations in 31 in states.A cryptocurrency-investment platform called BitStore introduced a Mastercard-branded prepaid card that allows users to make payments at merchants with their crypto assets. Processing is handled by Alchemy Pay.Payments provider PayTrace Inc. announced it …

RocketFuel Blockchain, Inc., a provider of payment technology for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, has finalized the integration of its payment solution with ACI Worldwide Inc. The integration to ACI’s Secure eCommerce platform will enable ACI’s more than 80,000 merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments with no processing fees. The partnership between …

Priority Technology Holdings LLC late on Wednesday reported $144 million in revenue for 2021’s December quarter and $514.9 million for the full year, increases of 35.7% and 27.4% year-over-year, respectively.  The Alpharetta, Ga.-based company, which ranks among the 25 largest merchant processors in the country, handles payments and related services …

Escalent Inc., an analytics and advisory firm, said it acquired Mercator Advisory Group, adding to its payments advisory portfolio. Escalent acquired Javelin Strategy & Research in 2019. Current Mercator president and chief executive Robert Misasi will help with the transition before leaving these positions.MoneyGram International Inc. agreed to pay a civil monetary penalty of …

Buy now, pay later options for consumers continue to grow. Nascent airline Breeze Airways will offer Uplift Inc.’s BNPL option to its travelers and Mastercard Inc. announced several more retailers joined its Mastercard Installments program. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Uplift said it is the exclusive BNPL option for Breeze flights. The service …

Fraudsters targeted fintechs at an alarming rate in 2021, according to Sift Science Inc.’s first-quarter 2022 Digital Trust & Safety Index. The index reveals that the payment-fraud attack rate across fintechs within Sift’s network increased a whopping 70% in 2021 compared to 2020. The attack rate is defined as the …

Payments-technology provider XTM Inc. said it has added Apple Pay and Google Pay to its U.S. Today mobile wallet. The company says it has rolled out more than 100,000 wallets so far.Payments provider Nuvei Corp. said it will process payments for cryptocurrency by holders of the Ledger hardware wallet. With the agreement, holders can buy crypto …

CloudPay, a provider of employee payment solutions, is partnering with Visa Inc. to enable payroll to be deposited directly to employee debit or credit cards through Visa Direct, Visa Inc.’s real-time payment network The new service is expected to provide employees immediate access to their funds compared to the two …