Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

The Covid-19 pandemic is driving consumers and merchants to opt for contactless options, and now software that can enable an ordinary smart phone to accept cards via near-field communication is moving faster toward the point of sale. Visa Inc. on Wednesday granted a so-called security compliance allowance to MagicCube Inc.’s …

Canadian processor Lightspeed POS Inc. expects its acquisition of Upserve Inc., a Providence, R.I.-based provider of cloud-based restaurant-management software, to make it more competitive in the restaurant point-of-sale business in the United States.  The acquisition of Upserve for a combination of cash and stock totaling $430 million comes hot on …

Sysnet Global Solutions said it acquired the Managed Complication Solutions division of ControlScan Inc. With the acquisition, Sysnet said almost 4 million small and mid-size businesses and payment processing companies use its services. Terms were not disclosed.Fido Merchant Services, a United Kingdom-based payment gateway and merchant services provider, is embarking on …

Global e-commerce sales totaled more than $5.1 billion during the four- day holiday shopping period from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, up 76% from the same period in 2019, says e-commerce platform provider Shopify Inc. Online sales for the period, which traditionally kicks off the holiday-shopping season, surpassed 2019 volume …

Thinking of cashing in on some of your residuals to get capital? Worried about how the uncertainty of potential administration changes in Washington could impact your bottom line? Inching closer towards retirement? No matter what your reasons, now is the perfect time to cash in on your portfolio. That’s because …

Nuvei Corp. is making a move to bolster its integrated payments offerings with the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Phoenix-based Base Commerce LLC. Announced Tuesday, the pending deal—it’s expected to close by Dec. 31—will expand Nuvei’s product capabilities with a proprietary automated clearing house platform and additional merchants, Montreal-based …

Most Americans will be glad to see the last of 2020 as they ring in 2021 in a few weeks, and that group will include private investors. In a year in which the coronavirus ran rampant, damaging many businesses and shuttering others, tech investors pegged significantly fewer privately held payments …

The Libra Association, the organization behind the Libra cryptocurrency project, said it is renaming itself Diem, Latin for “day.” Acknowledging pressure from governments and regulators worldwide, the association this spring changed course on several key strategies, setting out new plans for single-currency stablecoins and a stronger compliance regime.Commerce platform Shopify Inc. said its merchants had …

Account takeover fraud has been a challenge for e-commerce merchants since business online. But recent years have proven exactly how pervasive ATO is across every industry, and revealed that it’s the average fraudster’s weapon of choice. Between the second quarter of 2019 and Q2 2020, overall ATO rates (the percentage …

With consumers shifting more of their transactions online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, criminals continue to target card-not-present transactions and step up their efforts to deceive consumers into giving up their account information, says Feedzai Inc.’s latest quarterly Financial Crime Report. The three leading factors contributing to the increase in …

Commerce platform Shopify Inc. reported $2.4 billion in global Black Friday sales, a 75% increase from 2019. Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving. Mobile sales accounted for 68% of U.S. transactions and desktop, 32%. Top U.S. cities were New York, Los Angeles, and Vernon, Calif. The average ticket of $93.80 was …

Unlike Visa and Mastercard, Plaid is not just another credit and debit card company largely beholden to the big banks. It uses modern technology, in a sector that has been slow to adopt it, to create a new payments paradigm. It likely has no plans to issue cards or use …

With digital and physical commerce melding, Fiserv Inc. intends to position its Carat platform as the engine to enable providers such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit and merchants to process transactions across both channels. Fiserv took a big step in that direction last week when it announced it will enable …

Finally! No doubt, merchants throughout the country are applauding the Justice Department’s suit against Visa to stop its planned acquisition of Plaid, a potential competitor. For far too long, we’ve witnessed the growth of Visa’s dominance of the debit card business, which has come at a huge cost to America’s …

Some 81% of U.S. consumers have used a one-click payment method while shopping online, with 37% using the method “frequently,” according to a survey earlier this month of 961 consumers by The Strawhecker Group and the Electronic Transactions Association.Switched dollar volume and switched transaction volume for Mastercard Inc. in the week ending Nov. 21 were both …

The future of digital payments is being created now with the adoption of contactless payments, new digital transactions such as buy online, pick up in store, and reduced friction within the payments ecosystem. That’s the assessment in the “Future-Proof Payments: From the EMV Chip to a Fully Digital Future” report …

The pandemic has forced the world—individuals and businesses alike—to reassess their approaches toward life and reevaluate daily processes. The same goes for convenience stores with a particular focus on solution-driven innovation and adaptation. They must evolve their businesses with modern technologies, such as contactless payment processing, pre-store visit staging, and …

Payment Alliance International Inc. said its fleet of more than 95,000 ATMs will redeem Bitcoin for cash under an agreement with B4U Financial LLC, whose BitLoad4U technology will manage authorization, clearing, and settlement and allow redemption from any cryptocurrency mobile wallet.A Bitcoin variant called Bitcoin Latinum announced a pre-sale launch with availability on exchanges in …

The Western Union Co.’s  real-time digital payout service for sending money real-time to bank accounts, digital wallets, and cards, is now available in 100 countries. The service, which was announced in September 2019 at Western Union’s investor day conference, leverages Western Union’s more than 40 banking and payment partnerships covering more than …

Independent ATM operators are lauding a proposed rulemaking from the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency they say would correct a history of denial of access to banking services for entrepreneurs that install and operate ATMs in retail stores and other locations. Observers say the rulemaking, if adopted, …