Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

So, how much will Covid-19 have affected payment card dollar and transaction volumes when the card networks and merchant processors report their first-quarter financials beginning in about a month? At this point, it’s way too early to tell. An early read might come Tuesday when American Express Co. is scheduled …

As stock markets swoon in the face of the novel coronavirus outbreak and its effects, prices for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are sliding as well, disproving at least for now the idea that cryptos can serve as a so-called safe haven for investors. Bitcoin, the leading digital currency, was trading at …

Nacha’s Smarter Faster Payments 2020 Conference has been canceled because of concerns related to the novel coronavirus. Nacha said it is trying to develop a free virtual event with select educational content. Next year’s conference is scheduled for April 25-28 in San Francisco.Dueling bills have been introduced in the Delaware Legislature that would …

The Electronic Transactions Association said Thursday it will take on a bigger role in Canada. The Washington, D.C.-based trade group, which has represented the interests of payments-technology and merchant-acquiring firms before the Canadian government for the past two years, will now also take on liaisons with the card networks and …

The unprecedented impact of dealing with the coronavirus outbreak encircling the globe has hit close to the payments industry. Several conferences have been postponed or canceled, and one vendor has set up a relief fund for merchants. Point-of-sale system maker Revel Systems Inc. created the Revel Relief Program, which can help …

Airport restaurant and retail operator OTG Experience LLC says it will be one of the first retailers to use Amazon.com Inc.’s “Just Walk Out” cashierless technology, the system that powers Amazon’s Amazon Go stores, when it opens a CIBO Express Gourmet Market next week in Terminal C of Newark Liberty International Airport.A technology …

As the plague of ransomware continues to roil digital payments and other industries, it turns out state and local governments are proving to be particularly vulnerable. In fact, ransomware attacks on school systems, police departments, city administrative offices, and other governmental agencies are rising fast. Last year, state and local …

The electronic-payments industry is settling into a ride-it-out mode as panic selling resumed Thursday on Wall Street over the coronavirus, now deemed a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 1,700 points, and most payments stocks went over the cliff with it. In late-morning …

Payments provider North American Bancard LLC launched two new compensation programs for sales agents, including a restructured bonus program and a portfolio buyout program that includes an opportunity for qualified sales agents to have a portion of their residuals purchased.Processor Wirecard AG is partnering with point-of-sale credit specialist Klarna AB to integrate all of …

As consumers and businesses contend with the uncertainty spawned by the coronavirus outbreak, payments companies will feel the effects, perhaps more than they’ve already announced. Though neither of the two larger U.S. card networks—Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc.—have updated their recent revisions to their financial guidance, some analysts suggest the impact …

Fast-growing payment technology and software provider SpotOn Transact Inc. said Wednesday that it raised $50 million in a Series B funding round that included 01 Advisors, an investment firm led by three former Twitter Inc. executives.  SpotOn, which says its revenues increased by more than 150% in 2019, will use …

Novo Dia Group, a developer of point-of-sale software for electronic benefits transfer and other payments, said it has integrated with Square Inc.’s platform and enhanced its main product, Mobile Market, which it has renamed TotalPay.College payment-processing specialist PayMyTuition said it has developed a service that allows colleges and universities to settle cross-border …

Machine learning is a popular fraud-fighting technology, but models have a tendency to become less effective over time as criminals adjust their tactics. On Tuesday, ACI Worldwide Inc. said it’s taking a crack at that problem with a service that the company says can adjust automatically to changing fraud patterns. …

As merchants expect more consolidated services from their point-of-sale systems, payments providers are listening and acting. Merchant processor Shift4 Payments LLC said Tuesday that its suite of restaurant POS systems now has an integration with TakeOut7 Inc., an online-ordering service. This enables orders placed via TakeOut7 to sync with Shift4’s …

The Western Union Co. launched WU Incoming Payments for Legal, a service aimed at allowing U.S. law firms to accept foreign payments without bank-processing fees.Payments provider Usio Inc. said InsureSmith, which provides insurance brokerage software products, integrated Usio’s PayFac-in-a-Box service to enable users to pay premiums directly through the InsureSmith platform.E-commerce services provider Signifyd announced …

As the payments industry reeled Monday morning during yet another wild session on Wall Street, card manufacturer CPI Card Group Inc. provided a glimmer of hopeful news when it reported improving financials thanks in part to growing sales of dual-interface cards. Littleton, Colo. based CPI said fourth-quarter sales in its …

Online criminals are not that much unlike honest consumers in adopting mobile Web sites and apps as their favored channels with retailers and financial services. The evidence is that attack rates via mobile sites increased 56% in the latter half of 2019, according to the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report …

Private-equity firm InterPrivate LLC announced the acquisition of SurchX, a payments provider offering surcharging programs. SurchX was renamed InterPayments. Terms were not disclosed.ParTech Inc., a subsidiary of PAR Technology Corp., announced an application programming interface integration with eTouchMenu, a digital-menu provider, and ParTech’s Brink POS software.Priority Payment Systems, a subsidiary of …

The global coronavirus scare has prompted a number of warnings that could end up benefiting electronic payments, particularly contactless transactions. Authorities ranging from the World Health Organization to doctors in local practices have warned this week about the risks of handling paper currency, and some have also cautioned against touching …

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and chief executive of Twitter Inc. who also is the CEO of merchant processor Square Inc., told an investor conference he is reconsidering his plan to spend much of his time this year in Africa because of Covid-19, the coronavirus, “and everything else going on,” Bloomberg …