Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

As part a strategy to widen its market for banking solutions, Green Dot Corp. Wednesday launched GO2bank, a mobile-banking application intended to help the 7.1 million unbanked households in the United States manage their finances.  Green Dot says it is launching the program as a way to eliminate the costly …

An executive order by President Donald Trump banning a pair of major Chinese payments apps comes in the waning days of his administration and may leave more questions than it answers, observers say. The order, issued Tuesday, prohibits transactions on eight China-based apps, including the hugely popular Alipay and WeChat …

Payments platform Qualpay said it is now supporting Google Pay transactions in recognition of increasing consumer usage of mobile wallets.Payments-technology provider Cardknox launched a beta version of its partner portal, intended for the use of sales partners and independent sales vendors to onboard and manage merchant-processing accounts.Digital-payments provider Payrailz has launched Action Insights, a service intended …

PayPal Holdings Inc. may have prevailed in its lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over the CFPB’s rules pertaining to prepaid cards and digital wallets, but the overarching legal battle is likely to continue. The ruling, which was handed down Dec. 30 by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon and …

Amara’s Law, coined by Stanford computer scientist Roy Amara, says we tend to overestimate the impact of a new technology in the short run, but underestimate it in the long run. So it was with the Internet and mobile phones. So it’s likely to be with digital fiat currencies.  Since …

In the week before and the week of Christmas, consumers markedly increased their use of mobile wallets, with mobile wallets loaded with a debit card increasing 79.2% from the same weeks a year ago, according to the Tracking Transaction Trends report from PSCU, a credit union service organization. Use of mobile …

Buy now, pay later provider Afterpay Ltd. said users’ average ticket increased 30% in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2019.Affirm Inc. completed its acquisition of PayBright, a buy now, pay later provider in Canada.PayPal Holdings Inc. announced a check cashing feature for select Venmo app users. This enables them to have funds …

Count down the 10 most popular stories published in the Digital Transactions News daily newsletter in 2020. #10 Processor Paya Will Go Public Via a So-Called SPAC Merger (Aug. 3) #9 Feeling Heat, Square Explains Its New Reserve Policy (June 23) #8 After Beating Wells Fargo Twice in Court, USAA …

Bitcoin, the world’s largest and most well-known digital currency, is ending the year above $28,000, a quadrupling of its value since the start of 2020. Its market capitalization as of Dec. 30 is $536 billion, up from $133 billion at Jan. 2.RevoluGroup Canada Inc. has launched the RevoluEX Cryptocurrency Exchange that …

Challenger bank Current said it is the first fintech in the country to receive the second round of federal stimulus payments and is making the funds available to members immediately. The stimulus bill, which provides for $600 payments to individuals, was approved by Congress Dec. 21 and signed by President Donald Trump …

Nacha, the automated clearing house rules maker, and its Payments Innovation Alliance, a group of corporations, third-party processors, fintechs, and financial institutions, expanded the ACH Quick Start Tool, which helps smaller businesses learn about the ACH.Also, Nacha launched the Faster Payments Project Team to help organizations learn about faster payments and its capabilities.Starting Jan. …

Retail sales, excluding the automotive and gasoline categories, grew 3% in the Oct. 11 to Dec. 24 period year-over-year, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse. E-commerce sales volume grew 49% in the same period compared to the year-ago period.Some Walmart stores in north Alabama stopped accepting credit cards when the stores’ Internet service failed owing …

Little by little and step by step, merchants have been taking tighter control over their payments businesses. No longer merely the endpoint in a cardholder’s lifecycle, merchants are leveraging fintech in ways not possible just a few short years ago. This is why we’re seeing the big fintech-centric acquirers like …

The payments industry operates on a continuum of varying degrees of politicization, imposed and self-imposed. For maximizing value, less is better. Increased politicization will challenge the payments industry in 2021. U.S. regulators have already exercised enormous discretionary power over payments, sometimes lawlessly. Hatched by the Department of Justice in 2013, …

MoneyGram International Inc. said it is will “continue to monitor for any potential impact” from a recent lawsuit against cryptocurrency payments firm Ripple Labs and two top executives by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. MoneyGram has used Ripple’s foreign exchange blockchain since June 2019 to trade in four currencies, though the company …

Just as businesses are fast-tracking their efforts to accept digital payments as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, so too are houses of worship. Pushpay Holdings Ltd., a Redmond, Wash.-based independent sales organization, says the number of churches using its donor-management system is growing rapidly. While churches were already adopting …

With a second round of federal stimulus payments having passed Congress, payments firms are lining up to help recipients speed the funds’ availability. PayPal Holdings Inc., for example, said late Tuesday it will waive the fees for stimulus recipients that it normally charges consumers to cash checks using its app. …

NCR Corp. said Big Y Foods Inc., with 85 New England locations, selected the NCR Emerald point-of-sale system for its checkouts.With the pandemic shutting down casinos, gambling is moving online, where the volume of wagers is expected to nearly double to $92.9 billion in 2023 from $59 billion this year, Statista forecasts.Payments provider Paysafe …

ControlScan Inc., a major provider of PCI compliance and security services, has sold its business in two separate deals to Professional Datasolutions Inc. and Sysnet Global Solutions, respectively. PDI has purchased ControlScan’s Managed Security Services unit and Sysnet has acquired the company’s Managed Compliance Services Unit.  Sysnet also acquired the …

The confluence of digital payments and economic hardship during the Covid-19 pandemic has led another major supermarket chain to offer SNAP EBT acceptance through its mobile app and on its Web site for curbside pickup and home-delivery orders. H-E-B, with 329 stores in Texas and another 55 in Mexico, said …