Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Its long-term prospects for success are unclear, but the investment and cross-border payments partnership struggling wire-transfer provider MoneyGram International Inc. announced late Monday with blockchain-services developer Ripple Labs Inc. certainly produced a short-term bang by doubling the value of MoneyGram’s beaten-down stock. As part of the deal, Ripple invested $30 …

Celero Commerce announced two acquisitions, those of Elmhurst Financial Services and Tandem Innovative Payment Solutions. Following the deals—financial terms were not disclosed for either—Celero will have approximately 25,000 merchants and process approximately $10 billion in annual payment volume. Payment Alliance International said it acquired ISA-ECash, an ATM operator and developer …

Facebook Inc. is expected to release details this week, perhaps as early as Tuesday, on its Libra cryptocurrency initiative, but for now what’s known about the project has at least some experts shaking their heads. “Why a cryptocurrency, and why Facebook?” asks Tim Sloane, who follows digital currencies as vice …

Target Corp. was hit by two point-of-sale glitches this past weekend. On Sunday afternoon the retailer was unable to process certain card transactions at some of its 1,800 stores for about 90 minutes due to an issue at a data center of its payment-services vendor, NCR Corp., Reuters reported. Sunday’s …

Circle Internet Financial Ltd. will cease supporting its 5-year-old Circle Pay mobile app beginning next month in order to concentrate on its blockchain and cryptocurrency ventures. Circle Pay is a no-fee peer-to-peer payments app that enables users to send money using the recipient’s phone number or email address. The service …

The debut of cashless stores has led to pushback by several cities, the state of New Jersey, and a member of Congress concerned that card or mobile-payments-only options will leave cash-dependent consumers unable to shop in such stores. Now, new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta concludes that …

At least four payments companies are set to participate in a consortium formed by Facebook Inc. to launch a cryptocurrency next year aimed at commerce rather than exchange trading, according to a report Friday in The Wall Street Journal. Facebook is expected to officially announce the initiative next week. The …

Cross-border payments firm PPRO announced its acquisition of Allpago, a payment and gateway provider in Latin America. Terms were not disclosed. Payments-services provider i2c Inc. said it is working with Zero, a financial-technology company that provides banking services. Payveris LLC completed its $7 million Series D funding round led by …

Fleet and corporate payments provider WEX Inc. expects to enhance its charge volume through a new agreement to provide payment services to ChargePoint Inc., which has a global network of 66,000 charging stations for electric vehicles. The agreement with Campbell, Calif.-based ChargePoint will enable WEX’s 11 million fleet card holders …

Los Angeles-area merchants that sell transit tickets on behalf of 25 transit agencies will adopt an Android-based app for ticket sales, Cubic Corp. announced Thursday. Cubic says its Cubic Transportation Systems division is upgrading the existing point-of-sale infrastructure more than 450 retailers use to accommodate the Cubic Mobile for Merchants …

FirstBank, one of the largest privately held financial institutions in the United States, said it has committed to using the Real Time Payments network from The Clearing House Payments Co. Glint Pay Ltd., a startup that lets people make purchases on a debit Mastercard backed by gold, announced a $6.4 …

Online-payments provider Stripe Inc. made good on its promise to offer its processing software to in-store merchants with the release Wednesday of a slew of software and two pre-certified devices. Founded in 2011 as an online payments company, San Francisco-based Stripe announced in September it would add in-store payment acceptance. At …

A common assumption among merchant acquirers and retailers is that merchants are the ones who ultimately are liable for network fines after a merchant’s data breach. But a recent decision by a federal appellate court that ruled against First Data Corp., the nation’s largest payment processor, sends a message that …

Groupon announced it will provide GasBuddy, a fuel-price reporting service, with food and drink offers from local merchants via card linking. Consumers will be able to load offers directly to an eligible payment card after completing an opt-in enrollment in the GasBuddy app. POSaBIT, a fintech supplier to the legal …

A survey of more than 3,000 consumers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, sponsored by Transaction Network Services, shows the heaviest adoption of mobile-payment apps in the U.S., at 59% of respondents, but the highest adoption of contactless payments in the U.K., at 79%. Perhaps not surprisingly, younger …

Visa Inc. on Tuesday furthered its ambitions to expand beyond card payments with the commercial launch of a cross-border network that leverages blockchain technology to help manage business-to-business transfers. The network, called Visa B2B Connect, starts out with coverage of more than 30 so-called global trade corridors and plans to …

Private-equity firm Acuity Capital Partners LLC acquired specialty gift card manufacturer Sterling Card Solutions, according to Sterling’s financial advisor, the investment bank Capstone Headwaters. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Besides gift cards, Sterling makes hotel key cards, identification cards, phone cards, and other products. Half the world’s population, …

Retail loss-prevention executives say fraud is increasing the most inside stores, but nearly a third say fraud is rising the most in online-only sales and more than 20% say it’s going up the most in multi-channel sales. The findings come from the Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation’s newly released National …

The news that the major payment card networks will implement a standardized buy button later this year may have stirred hopes among issuers, merchants, and acquirers that the longstanding problems of rising e-commerce fraud and inconsistent checkout flows will finally be addressed. But already cautionary notes are emerging to indicate …

Publix Super Markets Inc. is adding a payments feature to its mobile app, first with a version for iOS devices and later for Android devices, according to The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla. Publix has 1,218 grocery stores in the Southeast, including 800 in Florida. Amazon.com and Synchrony Financial launched the …