Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

The federal court handling the long-running class-action litigation between merchants on one hand and big banks and Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. on the other announced on Friday it has granted “preliminary approval” to a settlement that could award between $5.54 billion and $6.24 billion to merchant plaintiffs. The parties …

PayPal Holdings Inc. introduced a so-called rainbow card for users of its Venmo peer-to-peer payments service. The colorful plastic, available for a limited time, is the latest version of a debit card PayPal launched last year to allow users to pay merchants with their Venmo balance. As with the original …

It was a rough 2018 for leading ATM network operator Cardtronics plc, but the company’s top management predicted Thursday that 2019 will be better. Houston-based Cardtronics early last year muddled through the end of its long-standing relationship with its biggest customer, 7-Eleven Inc., which is pulling down year-on-year comparisons. At …

Green Dot Corp.’s diversification from a pure prepaid card management company into banking and other financial-services niches is driving direct deposits into its card accounts and spurring revenue-generating payment volume, according to the company’s latest financial report. Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot said Wednesday that fourth-quarter purchase volume on its cards …

The use of chatbots in financial services is about to explode, if research released this week is any indication. Adoption will be such that the technology will save banks worldwide $7.3 billion in annual operating costs by 2023, compared to a projected $209 million this year, estimates Juniper Research in …

Apple Inc. and the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will begin issuing a joint credit card this spring, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new card will tie into the Apple Wallet. Apple’s brand already is on a credit card issued by Barclaycard. It is unknown what will happen to that …

Same-day automated clearing house transactions more than doubled in 2018 and the value of those payments increased 83% in the first full year of same-day ACH debit service, NACHA reported Tuesday. The same-day volumes helped the sprawling ACH network continue its growth streak, with total payments up nearly 7% and …

Sonarax, an ultrasonic-communications company, unveiled a new protocol for enabling devices, including ATMs and those capable of mobile payments, to communicate with one another. Israel-based Sonarax says its technology enables pairing of devices and data transfer on both encrypted and open channels using frequencies that are beyond human hearing capabilities. …

Payments provider North American Bancard Holdings LLC said it is integrating its capabilities with retail-management and point-of-sale software provider Vend. The joint service will be available to retailers through NAB’s resellers. Digital Debit Group, a unit of Qondado LLC, released a Quick Response code-based app for iOS and Android devices …

Apple Pay adoption show no signs of abating, with an estimated 43% of iPhone users across the globe enabling the mobile-payments service, says Loup Ventures LLC in a research note released Tuesday. That’s up from 36% in September and 20% in December 2017. Other estimates from the Minneapolis-based venture-capital firm …

ATM and payment-services provider Paramount Management Group LLC acquired CAI—The ATM Company, an independent deployer with thousands of ATMs in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and other states. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. A partnership between Transaction Network Services and P97 Networks has processed in-dash fuel payments for …

Two ATM trade groups said Monday they are working together to assure their members get access to banking services in what the associations believe is a risk-averse financial climate. The National ATM Council Inc. and the ATM Industry Association said they signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop a …

A Visa-branded debit card from Shift Financial Inc. that enabled consumers with accounts at digital currency exchange Coinbase to spend based on funds held in their Coinbase accounts reportedly will cease operations in April, said the CoinTelegraph.com news site. The card, issued by Metropolitan Commercial Bank, reportedly faced a limited …

Voice commerce accounted for only 1% of U.S. online purchases last year, but is projected to grow to 5% by 2023, research firm Euromonitor International said. Research and consulting firm Mercator Advisory Group released the “Securing E-Commerce: Competing Technology Crowds the Market” report that examines e-commerce fraud and measures and …

On the heels of a robust holiday shopping season come some sobering statistics. The recently released 2018 “True Cost of Fraud” study by LexisNexis Risk Solutions shows a 35% increase in fraud for midsize to large e-retailers over 2017. In the retail sector, the monthly average of fraudulent transactions jumped to 306 from …

For years, banking and payments veterans have dismissed cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin but at the same time have shown interest in the digital currencies’ underlying technology, the blockchain. Now one of the world’s biggest banking titans is testing its own blockchain-based token, but its restriction of the system to its own …

New Jersey’s legislature this month passed a bill requiring merchants to accept cash at the point of sale, and several big cities, including New York, are considering similar measures. But does cash really need legal protection from payment cards and mobile wallets? That’s the question public officials as well as …

Hamburger chain The Wendy’s Co. announced a $50 million settlement of class-action lawsuits filed against it after a data breach that began in 2015. The 7,500 bank and credit-union plaintiffs alleged the breach was caused by malware that affected point-of-sale systems at more than 1,000 franchised Wendy’s locations. Some 18 …

Cincinnati-based grocery giant The Kroger Co. has launched a proprietary mobile-payments service, Kroger Pay, and an accompanying Kroger Rewards debit card. Kroger Pay, available for iOS and Android mobile devices, is a quick-response code-based mobile-payment service, which also includes digital coupons and personalized offers. Kroger Pay, like some other retailer-backed mobile-payments services, …

The number of U.S. merchant locations accepting EMV chip cards grew nearly 15% in 2018 while EMV payment transactions rose 27%, according to new data from Visa Inc.  In its latest report on the conversion of U.S. general-purpose payment cards from magnetic stripes to EMV chips, Visa says 3.1 million …