Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

“We are looking very carefully at the question of whether we should issue a digital dollar,” said Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell in testimony before the Senate banking committee. “We are the world’s reserve currency and we have a responsibility to get this right.” As digital currency moves from the …

Just over a year after transaction volume in many merchant segments flatlined due to the economic turmoil caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, activity is showing a steadily strengthening pulse, according to data released Thursday by Shift4 Payments Inc. In March, Shift4’s end-to-end transaction volume totaled $3.3 billion, up 40% from …

Forter Ltd., a specialist in online-fraud prevention, says merchants using the Magento e-commerce platform now have access to its services. Meanwhile, Mastercard Inc. says total U.S. retail sales increased 26.3% in March from March 2020. Online retailers using Adobe Inc.’s Magento platform can use a Magento plugin to ease the …

Payments provider Adyen NV said it is offering the buy now, pay later service from Afterpay Ltd. to its merchants in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.PayMaple LLC, a payments-technology provider specializing in automobile dealerships, said it has joined a partner program from CDK Global Inc., a …

In 2020, 74% of organizations were targets of payments fraud, down from 81% in 2019 and 82% 2018, according to the Association for Financial Professionals’ annual fraud report. The Bethesda, Md.-based association has surveyed companies across myriad industries yearly for 17 years. Large organizations, those with annual revenue of $1 …

CardFlight Inc. has struck a deal with processor Global Payments Inc. that will see CardFlight’s SwipeSimple point-of-sale technology added to Global’s indirect sales channels. Atlanta-based Global says adding SwipeSimple to its wholesale product lineup will give its independent sales partners an omnichannel payment option. SwipeSimple supports contactless payments, EMV dipped, …

Contactless-technology provider Loop Insights Inc. announced it has integrated its service with an application programming interface for billing from point-of-sale technology provider Vend Ltd. The integration enables onboarding of Vend merchants to Loop’s compliance and reporting platform. Processor Lightspeed POS Inc. last month agreed to acquire Vend in a deal valued at $350 million. …

That the shift toward digital forms of payment was accelerated by the pandemic has been duly noted over the past year, but how much of that change will stick once the U.S. market and the rest of the world gets beyond Covid? Not all of it by any means, but …

The Brink’s Co. announced it has acquired ATM owner and services provider PAI Inc. for $213 million. PAI’s network links 100,000 machines.Banking-technology provider Jack Henry & Associates Inc. announced more than 115 financial institutions are now live on its real-time payments hub, JHA PayCenter. The hub connects to The Clearing House Payments Co.’s Real Time …

As part of its strategy to enable faster electronic payments, Dwolla Inc. on Tuesday released an application programming interface to enable real-time payments through The Clearing House Payments Co.’s RTP network. Fort Lee, New Jersey-based Cross River Bank Inc. will provide the processing link to the RTP network. Development of …

Podium Corp Inc., a communications and payments provider, is adding card readers to enable face-to-face payments as well as remote payments. Announced Monday, the reader accepts EMV, magnetic stripe, and contactless payments. Podium did not say when the readers will be available or disclose their cost. Podium’s primary payment method …

Nacha on Monday announced it will raise its dollar limit on same-day transactions 10-fold to $1 million starting next March. The move, which will come only two years after the governing body for the automated clearing house network raised the cap to $100,000 from the original $25,000 limit, comes as …

Intuit Inc. said its Intuit ProConnect unit has partnered with Practice Ignition, a service provider to accounting firms, to provide payments and other services to tax-preparation professionals. Intuit in February sued Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc., alleging the networks’ interchange pricing models constitute unlawful price fixing.Payments provider i3 Verticals Inc. said it has acquired two …

With its acquisition of Axia Technologies Inc., also known as AxiaMed, Bank of America Corp. took a big step toward rebuilding its merchant-acquiring business. AxiaMed provides financial services and payments technology to health-care providers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition, announced Friday, gives Bank of America a …

Buy now, pay later provider Afterpay Ltd. reported its bi-annual Afterpay Day sale, the first to include brick-and-mortar merchants, generated a 35% increase in new active users and sent 6 million referrals to merchants around the world from the company’s Shop Directory.  Eighty-six percent of the transactions made that day, …

Payments-technology provider dLocal Ltd. announced a $150-million investment led by Alkeon Capital and valuing the company at $5 billion. The company also appointed former Chase executive Sumita Pandit chief operating officer. Former COO Jacobo Singer was promoted to president.PayGround Inc., a payments provider specializing in health care, has reached an agreement with …

OLB Group is the latest processor to support Quick Response codes as merchants look for ways to adopt contactless-payment options in the wake of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. OLB will support dynamic QR codes, which are generated in real time for each transaction, on its cloud-based OmniSoft business-management platform and …

App-based technology for point-of-sale transactions has been a preserve of POS system providers like Square and Clover, but now smaller independent sales organizations are looking for a piece of that growing pie. Early Thursday, VizyPay LLC announced VizyPOS, an app that can control such functions as cash discounting and real-time …

Paysafe Group Holdings Ltd. has launched Neteller Knect, a loyalty program for users of its Neteller digital wallet. The program is active in more than 100 countries. Paysafe earlier this week went public via its merger with Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp. II.Sightline Payments, a startup specializing in payments for the gaming, lottery, and …

The drive to build merchant acceptance of cryptocurrency continues to gain momentum with RocketFuel Blockchain Inc.’s announcement on Wednesday that it is rolling out a one-click, blockchain-based payments solution for e-commerce transactions. RocketFuel’s service supports payments or direct bank transfers in 43 cryptocurrencies. The first two merchants to adopt the …