Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Consumer spending has now been recovering for a full year from the impact of Covid-19, according to a report released on Wednesday by Visa Inc. The card network’s U.S. Spending Momentum Index, which it began releasing publicly last month, registered a reading of 123.3 for May. That number indicates 59% …

A survey from Fast, an online checkout provider, found that 86% of U.S. shoppers have abandoned an online shopping cart. Of the 1,004 consumers surveyed earlier this month, 55% said they would be more likely to make an online purchase if there was a quicker, easier way to buy directly from …

The trend toward providing merchants technology that unites their digital and physical payments acceptance and allows them to manage their operations from a single platform got another boost Tuesday with Israel-based Wix.com Inc.’s introduction of Wix POS. The solution allows merchants to accept in-store and online payments, including contactless and chip …

One way to boost mobile-wallet usage for functions like payments is to more tightly integrate the apps into users’ daily lives. Apple Inc. followed that script with its preview on Monday of an update for watchOS8, the brains behind its Apple Watch.  This fall, the refresh will allow users to …

PayNearMe, which enables cash payments as well as card, ACH, Apple Pay, and Google Pay payments, said its customers will be able to complete bill payment transactions at participating Walmart Inc. locations beginning in August. The deal is through a partnership with Green Dot Corp.Member Driven Technologies, a credit union …

As part of its strategy to create an all-encompassing platform for merchants and their suppliers, Lightspeed POS Inc. on Monday announced the acquisition of two companies: Ecwid Inc., a consumer e-commerce platform, and NuOrder Inc., an e-commerce platform for suppliers, for a combined $925 million in cash and equity in …

Pundits have predicted for months that cash acceptance will decline markedly as consumers rush into electronic payments. But sellers view cash as a less-expensive option for them, and some payments providers are looking to cater to that view. On Monday, VizyPay LLC said it is opening its cash-discount app to …

Point-of-sale developer SpotOn introduced SpotOn Sidekick, a handheld POS-acceptance device designed specifically for food trucks, pop-up dining, cafes, and other mobile food kitchens. Pricing was not disclosed.Visa Inc. said banking giant Goldman Sachs will deploy Visa’s B2B Connect and Visa Direct Payouts platforms to speed cross-border business-to-consumer and business-to-business payments for Goldman client …

From a merchant perspective, one of the most harmful features of today’s card networks is default pricing. One merchant advocate succinctly described the anti-competitive impact of default pricing, stating, “with default pricing, banks have no incentive to compete for merchants’ business.”  Today, individual merchants are forced to face off against …

Payments provider Fintainium said it is working with Visa Inc.’s real-time push-payment network, Visa Direct, and CIT Inc. to let merchants access cash flow and consumers receive payouts.Progressive Care Inc. said its PharmCoRx pharmacies is accepting Bitcoin in payment for Covid-19 rapid-testing services. The company began accepting cryptocurrency in 2018.ParkMobile LLC said its mobile app is …

Less than a month after Paysafe Group Holdings Ltd. announced processing online gambling transactions will become a primary focus for the company, the strategy is quickly paying dividends as the processor has expanded its relationship with Golden Nugget Online Gaming Inc. to Michigan. The deal is an outgrowth of online-gambling …

Most payments processors that deal in digital currencies let consumers pay with Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies and then may translate that money into dollars or other fiat money for the merchant. On Thursday, a company called Paxful Inc. announced a service that appears to do the opposite: it lets users …

With the Covid-19 pandemic prompting consumers to adopt online commerce and mobile-banking apps in droves, Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO) is betting the latest release of its FICO Falcon Fraud Manager for Retail Banking will give financial institutions a leg up on detecting push-payment fraud. The fraud occurs when a consumer …

Not quite two years old, LG Pay, the mobile payment service from LG Electronics USA, is shutting down, according to a report on Droid-Life.com. It captured a screenshot of an alert declaring the service will be phased out and discontinued “over the remainder of 2021.” In April, LG announced it was exiting …

In an effort to stymie card-not-present fraud, which has been on the rise during the Covid-19 pandemic, American Express Co. on Wednesday announced its Enhanced Authorization fraud-detection application is being made available to three major platforms—those of Accertify Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Riskified Ltd.—via an application programming interface. While the …

Just as the Covid-19 pandemic spurred many consumers to turn to online shopping, merchants have experienced a corresponding increase in their chargeback rates. Sixty-eight percent of merchants said the pandemic affected their chargeback rates, found the second annual Chargeback Field Report from Chargebacks911, a chargeback-management platform. Clearwater, Fla.-based Chargebacks911 also …

Mitek Systems Inc., a provider of digital identity-verification technology, said it has acquired ID R&D Inc., a provider of voice and face biometrics technology, for up to $49 million in Mitek stock and cash.Payments processor Fleetcor Technologies Inc. closed on its acquisition of cross-border payments specialist Associated Foreign Exchange Inc. The deal, …

With small and medium businesses looking to establish or expand their e-commerce presence, Wix.com Ltd., an Israeli-based provider of cloud-based Web-development services, is adding Skrill, a digital wallet and payments gateway operated by Paysafe Group Holdings Ltd., to its platform. Integrating Skrill will enable Wix merchants to accept credit and …

Vendors of parking apps in North America have an even more potent new competitor with the closing on Tuesday of EasyPark Group’s acquisition of the Park Now Group, which includes Atlanta-based ParkMobile LLC. The deal, which the companies announced in March, brings a major North American stake to Stockholm-based EasyPark, …

Deluxe Corp. has closed on its $960-million cash deal for payments provider First American Payments Systems, announced in April. The acquisition doubles Deluxe’s payments revenue to $600 million annually, driving its share of the company’s overall revenue from 17% to 29%.Authentication-technology provider LoginID Inc. said it has received an undisclosed investment from Visa Inc., …