Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

As the Federal Reserve embarks upon its journey to becoming a real-time payments provider with its planned FedNow service, Mastercard Inc. on Tuesday announced the biggest acquisition in its history, one the network says will strengthen its real-time, bill-payment, and related services. Mastercard said it has a deal to buy …

Apple Inc. made its upcoming Apple Card available to the public on a limited basis. The full rollout of the card—which was unveiled in March, is issued by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and runs on the Mastercard network—is expected later in the month.Automated clearing house network administrator Nacha said it is “committed to working cooperatively …

Ending months of speculation, the Federal Reserve confirmed Monday it will launch a real-time payments service by 2023 or 2024. The banking regulator, which also published Monday a notice in the Federal Register outlining its plan and requesting comment, will thus take what it says is its biggest move in …

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to announce Monday whether it will enter the business of real-time payments as an operator competing with existing private-sector players.  A so-called public option from the national banking regulator could please retailers and small financial institutions concerned about whether the nascent real-time payments market …

ControlScan expanded its agreement with Clark Brands LLC to offer managed firewall and PCI-compliance services to the petroleum retailer.Installment-payments specialist Klarna, which has processed payments for fashion retailer ASOS in the United Kingdom, extended that relationship to the U.S. market, the companies said.In related news, installment-payment processor Splitit said a survey of more than …

With faster-payment services growing in the U.S. and the Federal Reserve expected to announce Monday whether it will assume a direct operating role in a real-time gross settlement system, banks and payment processors have not yet considered all the risks associated with the new services, according to a new report. …

Under pressure from changing market conditions and challenges from digital-based competitors, money-transfer giants The Western Union Co. and MoneyGram International Inc. both reported disappointing second-quarter results. In addition, Denver-based Western Union said it will chop its workforce by 10% over the coming months as part of a cost-reduction campaign it …

The following is an interview conducted by Bob Jenisch Publisher of Digital Transactions with Denise Tahali of Paysafe. While Paysafe has roots dating over 20 years, particularly in Canada and Europe, can you describe Paysafe’s strategy in the U.S.? Over the past five years, we have significantly expanded our footprint …

Square Inc. agreed to sell its Caviar food-delivery service to DoorDash for $410 million in cash and DoorDash preferred stock. Square acquired Caviar in 2014 for a reported $90 million.Montreal-based payment firm Nuvei Technologies completed its acquisition of U.S.-based SafeCharge International Group Ltd. for $889 million; the deal brings to Nuvei technology assets and merchant …

As Square Inc. enters its 11th year in business, observers have noted how it is depending increasingly on sales to larger sellers. But its financial results for the second quarter, released Thursday, indicate how the San Francisco-based company is also depending more and more on its rapidly growing consumer business, …

Consumers are making more debit card transactions without the physical card, and fraudsters are taking notice, according to a major study released Thursday. Transactions such as e-commerce payments, push payments, and peer-to-peer transfers using the accounts backing debit cards, but not the plastic itself, are rising dramatically, according to the …

The PCI Security Standards Council and Retail & Hospitality ISAC issued a joint bulletin about a growing threat to e-commerce Web sites that the cybersecurity organizations say requires “urgent awareness and attention.” The threat, sometimes dubbed Magecart, involves sites infected with difficult-to-detect malware that skims payment card information during a transaction without …

A new report about online security finds that 50% of phishing domains that researchers tracked mimicked the Web sites of financial-services companies. The findings come from the “State of the Internet/Security” report released Wednesday by Cambridge, Mass.-based Web-services provider Akamai Technologies. Forever a favorite of criminals, banks and other financial …

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) said it has closed on its $43-billion cash-and-stock acquisition of processor Worldpay Inc. The deal was announced in March. Wednesday’s announcement follows approval of the merger by Worldpay shareholders last week and by the Federal Trade Commission in April.Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook reported the Apple Pay mobile-payments service is now completing nearly …

The Kroger Co. and Visa Inc. have settled a 2016 federal lawsuit in which Kroger alleged Visa interfered with its transaction-routing plans for EMV debit cards, Digital Transactions News has learned. In a separate dispute, however, the leading stand-alone supermarket chain is still boycotting Visa credit cards in some of …

Big merchants like Amazon.com Inc. are celebrated for virtually friction-free transaction flows, and now that’s putting pressure on the point-of-sale vendors that serve small businesses. That’s because clients want the same kind of experience for their customers, but don’t know how to go about it, a panel of experts said …

The end of Bank of America Merchant Services, a merchant-acquiring joint venture between Bank of America Corp. and First Data Corp., is at hand.  Charlotte, N.C.-based BofA said Monday it will pursue an independent merchant-acquiring strategy beginning in June 2020, though First Data, which that same day became part of …

Mastercard Inc. saw strong growth in its core business in the second quarter, a time when the network continued its push for contactless cards and development of the new Secure Remote Commerce system for online payments. Mastercard said it switched 21.4 billion transactions globally in the three months ending June …

Major credit card issuer Capital One Financial Corp. said it detected a data breach this month in which an intruder gained access to records affecting 100 million persons in the United States and 6 million in Canada. Affected data included such information as names, addresses, Zip Codes, and dates of birth, though …

Two payments players separately have added partner programs to boost their presence among merchants. Shift4 Payments LLC debuted its third-party point-of-sale marketplace with the DoorDash delivery service as a strategic participant. The Shift4 program enables companies like DoorDash to offer their applications to merchants within the Shift4 POS marketplace.  For …