Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Neobank First Boulevard will test a suite of crypto application programming interface tools as part of Visa Inc.’s digital-currency strategy, Visa announced Wednesday. And Uphold Inc., a platform for digital wallets and cryptocurrency trading, has acquired Optimus Cards UK Ltd. and intends to issue crypto-enabled debit cards in Europe on …

The FedNow real-time payment service will launch commercially in 2023, the Federal Reserve said, narrowing the launch date from the 2023-24 timing it has projected since announcing the project in 2019.Fuel retailer Valero Energy Corp. said it is working with payments-technology provider P97 Networks to launch a mobile app that allows users to activate …

Visa Inc. is leveraging its sponsorship of the National Football League with a new one-day promotion geared to attract small businesses to its Authorize.Net payment gateway on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 7. Visa announced Tuesday that it will waive Authorize.Net’s monthly gateway fee for the life of an account, along …

Much attention in the payments industry has focused on how the coronavirus pandemic has boosted contactless technology in stores, but it’s also leading more consumers and now businesses to adopt peer-to-peer payments networks, as well. After initial success with consumers, banks are starting to adapt P2P systems especially for small …

Jared Isaacman, founder and chief executive of Shift4 Payments Inc. and an experienced pilot, will command Inspiration4, the world’s first civilian space flight, scheduled for the fourth quarter and mounted in collaboration with SpaceX. Isaacman is also donating $100 million to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which will have two …

Investing in digital account opening, mobile-banking applications, and customer-relationship applications are among bankers’ priorities for digital services in 2021, says a report from Computer Services Inc., a provider of cloud-based financial-services technology. Enabling consumers to open accounts digitally, even after the Covid-19 pandemic subsides, was cited as a top priority …

With the Federal Reserve’s announcement last week that more than 110 financial institutions and processors have signed up for a pilot of the FedNow real-time payments service, third-party service providers are working to smooth the way for small banks that might otherwise be left on the sidelines. “We’re filling the niche …

American Express Co. said it is working with its reservation-technology company Resy to encourage cardholders to order out from restaurants. The program includes new dining offers on many AmEx cards.Exactuals LLC, whose PaymentHub platform processes residuals, royalties, and other payments for the entertainment industry, said dollar volume on the platform grew …

Although the number of stolen credit cards for sale on the dark Web remained steady at around 45 million throughout 2020, some surprising trends emerged when it came to the type of cards for sale and the markets where they originated, says a new report from cybersecurity firm Sixgill. One such …

Javier Perez, formerly president of Mastercard Europe, has launched Global PayTech Ventures, said to be the first venture-capital firm concentrating exclusively on payment technology.Springbrook Software, developer of systems supporting payments for local governments, released its Municipal Payments Collection portal, which supports payments for miscellaneous town fees. The portal is available via …

Visa Inc. along with many other payments companies was thrown for a loop by the coronavirus pandemic, but now it’s clawing it’s way back on the strength of debit cards, e-commerce, and a real-time payments service called Visa Direct. “In the United States, we are actually back to our prepandemic …

Now that NCR Corp. has reached an agreement to acquire Cardtronics plc, speculation is growing about what NCR plans to do with the new assets, specifically the 285,000 ATMs Cardtronics operates and its transaction-processing business.  For NCR, the value in the acquisition lies not in Cardtronics’ ATMs themselves, but in …

Mastercard Inc. saw overall payment volumes inch up in the final quarter of 2020, buoyed by rising debit card volumes and such factors as federal stimulus payments in the U.S. market, the card network’s top executives reported Thursday. Looking ahead, the arrival of vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic will …

Grocery commerce provider Mercatus launched its SNAP EBT Online service that enables recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to order and pay for groceries online.Alliance Data Systems Corp. said its Bread unit is licensing its payments technology to Royal Bank of Canada to support the bank’s PayPlan point-of-sale installment-lending service. Alliance Data …

Vistaprint, a provider of physical and digital marketing materials to small businesses, announced Wednesday an agreement with PayPal Holdings Inc. to enable small businesses to accept payments through Quick Response codes. To order Vistaprint marketing materials with a QR code, small businesses log on to Vistaprint’s Web site and choose …

The firms that make payments apps work behind the scenes are facing a growing problem. As more and more consumers use the apps, more and more banks get involved, casting an ever-widening net of unique requirements on the data networks that connect the apps to users’ bank accounts.  That places …

Payments provider Shift4 Payments Inc. rebranded its e-commerce platform as Shift4Shop. The platform is based on 3dcart, a company Shift4 acquired in November.Seventy-two percent of consumers used a credit or debit card to complete a cross-border transaction, according to the Global Voices 2021: Cross-Border Shopper Insights survey from eShopWorld, a cross-border e-commerce company.Visa Inc. has …

In a wide-ranging session, American Express Co.’s top brass Tuesday expressed optimism that increasing availability of coronavirus vaccines will soon induce consumers to travel and that the new Biden Administration’s policies are unlikely to have much impact on the New York City-based company’s core business. On an early morning conference …

Diebold Nixdorf Inc. released the DN Series Easy suite of self-service point-of-sale stations. The products employ a modular design, enabling merchants to customize the products to their needs.InComm Payments has partnered with hospitality company Delaware North to implement the InComm cashless payment solution at select sports venues where Delaware North operates food …

The Federal Reserve reported late Monday it has received more than 110 expressions of interest from financial institutions and processors for a real-time payments pilot program slated to start later this quarter. That number exceeds the 80 entities the Fed expected to participate in the pilot for the FedNow service, …