Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

A survey of 260 corporate executives found that 85% said the availability of real-time payments is the most important factor when choosing a bank partner, said Citizens Financial Group Inc.Mozper, a contactless card intended to help educate children on responsible payments, launched in Brazil on the Visa Inc. network.A mobile-commerce startup …

With the Covid-19 pandemic helping fuel broad adoption of Quick Response codes by merchants for payments and ordering, it was only a matter of time before criminals exploited the contactless technology. Fraudsters are creating fake QR codes that, when scanned, take consumers to a bogus landing page that collects payment …

The Federal Reserve’s FedNow real-time payments platform will charge a monthly $25 participation fee for each receiving routing transit number, 4.5 cents per credit transfer to be paid by sender, and a penny for a request for payment message, paid by requestor. The Fed expects to release a full fee schedule later this …

Visa Inc.’s top executives made it plain Thursday afternoon that the story of the company’s growth into the near future is threefold, including cryptocurrency, cross-border transactions, and the buy now, pay later trend. “Visa is enabling scale for BNPL, crypto, and wallets,” Visa chief executive Alfred Kelly told equity analysts …

The vision of turning mobile devices into tap-and-go POS terminals took a big step forward Thursday as MagicCube Inc. announced i-Accept Cloud, an open, cloud-based softPOS acceptance platform. i-Accept Cloud is expected to simplify the creation of new merchant payment acceptance and digital commerce solutions. By connecting the currently siloed …

Top executives at Mastercard Inc. made it plain early Thursday the card network is determined to develop its account-to-account payment capabilities, while maintaining its distance from the dispute between its rival Visa Inc. and the e-commerce juggernaut Amazon.com Inc. over transaction pricing. “That’s fundamentally a question for Visa and Amazon,” …

Consulting firm The Strawhecker Group announced its list of best-performing payment gateways in a range of categories. CSG Forte and FIS (Express) were co-winners in the best-performing gateway category, with JPMorgan Chase (Orbital) as runner-up. Elavon (Fusebox) won for fastest transactions.With the majority of buy now, pay later accounts going unreported to …

The turbulent story of the Diem digital currency recorded yet another twist with reports on Tuesday that the two-and-a-half-year-old project is seeking to dispose of its assets. The latest news, first reported by Bloomberg, comes less than a year after the Diem Association moved its headquarters from Switzerland to the …

On Tuesday, Plaid Inc., a bellwether of the open-banking movement, announced the availability of Plaid Portal US, a privacy tool for consumers using Plaid’s technology. The move comes as firms that connect financial-services providers with consumer-account data seek to help account owners manage how their information is distributed and used by …

Payments provider Lightspeed Commerce Inc. announced new features for its Lightspeed Restaurant point-of-sale technology, including order throttling, a feature that helps manage spikes in demand.Software firm Launch Cart said it will introduce on Feb. 2 its On-Demand eCommerce SaaS platform, intended to ease entry into e-commerce for small business owners and entrepreneurs.Payments provider Paysafe Ltd. said …

Seeing an opportunity to offer payment acceptance along with its encryption and tokenization technologies to its enterprise clients, Bluefin Payment Systems LLC has invested an undisclosed sum in payment facilitator Payfactory Inc. The investment, which will create a strategic relationship between the two companies, will enable Payfactory to expand its …

American Express Co. saw its crucial travel-and-entertainment business continue to recover in the final three months of 2021, leading top company executives Tuesday morning to express considerable optimism for 2022. But don’t look any time soon for the New York City-based card giant to make any major forays into buy …

Payments provider Digital River Inc. unveiled Drop-in Checkout, technology that streamlines payments acceptance for brands on Digital River’s platform.Payments provider Shift4 Payments Inc. said it will process payments for Concessions International, a provider of food-and-beverage technology for airports, at almost 40 of the company’s locations.Cantaloupe Inc., a payments provider for unattended locations, said it …

Data-compromise incidents hit an all-time high in 2021, totaling 1,862, up 23% from the previous record high of 1,506 in 2017, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s Annual Data Breach Report. On a year-over-year basis, the number of the compromises increased 68% in 2021, compared to 2020. The number …

The Federal Reserve’s release last week of a discussion paper exploring a central bank digital currency for the United States has evoked interest from a group that emerged two years ago to help launch just such an initiative. The Digital Dollar Project on Friday applauded the Fed’s effort and underscored …

Blockchain platform XDC Network, working with blockchain developer LeewayHertz, released the XDC Network Stats platform, a presentation of key statistics about the network’s performance.RevoluGroup Canada Inc., a technology provider for banking, mobile apps, and remittances, announced a private placement of up to 10 million units at 20 cents each to raise …

Looking to help fintechs speed development of new banking applications, Unit, a banking-as-a-service platform, announced Thursday a pilot production environment that allows fintechs to instantly build and validate applications using real funds. The new product is expected to enable fintechs to build and test live bank accounts and issue virtual …

The Federal Reserve Board released a paper Thursday afternoon on the question of a central bank digital currency for the United States, and even though the Fed would play a crucial role in any such venture, observers looking for hints on how the central bank is leaning on the issue …

Discover Financial Services reported a net income of $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter, a 37.6% increase from $799 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. Net income for 2021 totaled $5.4 billion, a 391% increase from $1.1 billion in 2020. Discover said volume on its Pulse debit network was $64.8 …

Add Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena to Shift4 Payments Inc.’s growing list of sports and entertainment venues to which the company provides payment processing. T-Mobile Arena is home to the National Hockey League’s Las Vegas Golden Knights franchise and hosts other entertainment events on the Las Vegas strip.  Shift4 will process …