Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Despite 96% of U.S. financial-services organizations considering their technology security as adequate, 62% of those responding to a Thales survey said they experienced a breach. That’s according to the recently released 2019 Thales Data Threat Report.  Commissioned by Thales, the survey of 1,200 information technology and data security professionals and …

Payments provider Pineapple Payments said it has acquired a merchant portfolio from Paystri, an integrated-payments technology provider, and entered into a partnership with the firm. The size of the acquisition was not disclosed.Global e-commerce sales volume on Cyber Monday grew 21.5% in terms of value over Cyber Monday in 2018, outpacing sales …

The growing popularity of debit cards and the displacement of cash by card and electronic payment alternatives is nothing new, but a Federal Reserve banks’ report released Thursday shows debit cards for the first time have surpassed cash as the most-used payment type. The findings come from the 2018 Diary …

While last weekend’s holiday-shopping extravaganza unleashed a geyser of payment transactions, it also uncorked a flood of potential fraud, data released Thursday show.  Online shoppers spent $7.4 billion on Friday alone, with Cyber Monday sales, which by definition are e-commerce transactions, alone estimated to total a record $9.4 billion, up …

A new set of security protocols to better safeguard online connections within the financial-services industry is in the offing. Securing and trusting these connections is a critical piece of the payments infrastructure. Experts say the underlying standards they are built on—called public key infrastructure—need updating. That’s why the Accredited Standards …

Visa Inc. announced plans to launch a new certification program and fund up to 500 scholarships to train individuals as dispute-resolution professionals, a role Visa says is in high demand across the payments industry. The program will include multiple days of training and several professional-level certification exams.Field-service management and communications provider …

Visa Inc. is working fast to expand its foothold in cross-border remittances, a relatively new market for the card network. On Wednesday, MoneyGram International Inc. announced it is the first remittance service to allow international transfers that rely on Visa Direct, a push-payment service that enables real-time transfers to holders …

A new standard unveiled Wednesday by the PCI Security Standards Council could pave the way for more acceptance of contactless payments with no more hardware needed than a merchant’s off-the-shelf mobile phone or tablet. The standard is dubbed Contactless Payments on COTS (commercial off-the shelf devices), or CPoC. It spells …

The Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc., which sets standards for financial services, said it has restarted its X9F5 working group, the committee that developed the original standards underpinning public key infrastructure (PKI). The new group will work on new PKI standards that will address needs in the financial-services industry apart from …

Shift4 Payments Inc., one of the nation’s biggest independent sales organizations, announced on Tuesday that it has filed a draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for what it calls a “proposed” public offering. A Shift4 spokesman did not immediately return a call from Digital Transactions News …

Formerly distinct holiday spending patterns are blurring, according to new data. The National Retail Federation reported Tuesday that Black Friday, traditionally known for swarms of consumers in stores, for the first time topped Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, for online shopping. And Adobe Inc.’s research unit reported that consumers …

Weave, a provider of management applications and services for small businesses, announced the launch of Weave Payments, a payment-processing platform that includes acceptance of text-to-pay and mobile wallets.Corporate America Credit Union, a financial cooperative for almost 500 credit unions, has agreed to be a funding agent for the Real-Time Payments network …

Prices for Federal Reserve payment services to depository financial institutions will go up by an average of 2.4% on Jan. 2 under a new fee schedule approved last week by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The Fed estimates Check Services customers will see average price increases of 3.3%. Users …

Online shopping on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, increased 19.6% year-over-year, while in-store shopping that day increased 4.2%, according to Adobe Digital Insights and Fiserv Inc., respectively. Consumers did not disappoint in early holiday shopping results. Adobe Digital Insights, a unit of San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Inc., said consumers …

Jewelry retailer Pandora said it is standing by its 2019 sales guidance despite an eight-hour point-of-sale issue at U.S. and Canadian stores on Black Friday.American Express Co. said its Small Business Saturday promotion, which occurred Nov. 30, achieved a record with an estimated $19.6 billion in spending.With fewer people carrying cash, the Salvation …

Expect more consumers to wield their smart phones for their holiday shopping this year. Fully 70% of consumers in the Deloitte 2019 Holiday Retail Survey plan to make a holiday purchase using a smart phone. That’s up from 67% in 2018 and from 59% in 2017. A separate Visa Inc. …

Customer data from 4 million payment cards stolen in breaches at four restaurant chains has gone up for sale in the Joker’s Stash underground bazaar, KrebsOnSecurity reported. The breaches occurred at nearly half the 1,750 total locations of Krystal, Moe’s Southwest Grill, McAlister’s Deli and Schlotzsky’s, the latter three of which are owned by …

With the popularity of sharing-economy models, payments have become infinitely more complex. Sharing platforms certainly provide more value to consumers than pure-play, single-merchant-owned e-commerce sites, but they come with more challenges.  By 2021, the platform economy will welcome over 86 million users. That means that all over the world, 86 …

Banks have closed thousands of branches in recent years, hitting rural America especially hard and leaving retail ATMs, prepaid cards, and services from non-bank providers to fill the void, according to a new Federal Reserve report. The “Perspectives from Main Street: Bank Branch Access in Rural Communities” report released Monday …

Sitting in a meeting in New York City, Clay Wilkes put his company’s latest innovation to the test. “We onboarded a company, funded the master funding account, created an individual account, and moved funds from the master funding account, and bought a gift card on Amazon,” he recalls. “Someone in …