Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

As merchant acquirers prepare for an expected tide of holiday purchase transactions, they might notice that more big-ticket spending will be originating this year from mobile devices, according to Internet metrics firm Comscore Inc. Purchases of big-ticket items, which Reston, Va.-based Comscore defines as those costing more than $500, “hit …

Rebuffed earlier this month, a hedge fund on Tuesday urged remote deposit capture and identity-verification software provider Mitek Systems Inc. to reconsider its rejection of a buyout offer and begin negotiations. In a letter to Mitek’s board of directors, New York City-based Elliott Management Corp. accuses the board of “old-fashioned …

Payments companies and retailers have a sobering forecast to ponder for online fraud. By 2023, global online fraud losses from e-commerce, airline ticketing, money transfer, and banking services will grow from $22 billion projected in 2018 to $48 billion, says Juniper Research in a new report. Thanks to the proliferation …

As Chinese tourists pour into the United States and Canada, merchants are preparing for them by outfitting their checkouts to accept WeChat Pay and Alipay, the two leading Chinese mobile-payments services. The latest is 7-Eleven Inc., which said Tuesday it is enabling acceptance of the two wallets at 35 stores …

The ongoing selloff of technology stocks is pulling down payments-industry shares despite no major negative earnings or other recent news from payment companies. Shares of 41 of 45 payments-related companies tracked by Digital Transactions News fell Monday. Downward pressure moderated Tuesday morning but still continued. Among the worst hit Monday …

U.S. consumers have made the credit card their favorite online and face-to-face spending method, with 31.5% using it online and 40% choosing it for in-store transactions last year, according to the Worldpay Global Payments Report 2018. Released late last week, the report also found that debit cards and digital wallets, …

Mene Inc., an online jewelry merchant, agreed to use a real-time consumer-credit program from Affirm Inc., a payments and lending platform. Citigroup Inc.’s treasury and trade solutions unit said it extended its Citi Payment Insights service to 20 new markets, bringing to 70 the number of global markets where the …

More than 40% of retail executives surveyed for the National Retail Federation’s latest payments study say they have already dropped signature requirements for payment card transactions or plan to do so before this year is out. Another 13% plan to end signature requirements in 2019. The actions come in the …

Consumers still have fears about the safety of mobile payments, according to new findings from credit-union service organization PSCU. PSCU’s Eye on Payments survey released Thursday comes at least a decade after payments companies and researchers first determined that security concerns were holding back adoption of online and at the …

The era of the smart point-of-sale terminal has already dawned, and now the race is on for dominance. North American Bancard Holdings LLC on Thursday launched its PayAnywhere smart terminal, which runs on NAB’s PayAnywhere mobile-payment software. The move follows news earlier this week that terminal startup Poynt Co. is …

Payments provider SignaPay released a mobile app for Apple and Android devices called PayLo Mobile Sales to help sales agents selling the PayLo Cash Discount product. Installment-payments provider Sezzle said it raised $100 million in funding from Bastion Capital. Since launching the service more than a year ago, Sezzle says …

Ever since mobile payments first captured the public imagination four years ago with the launch of Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay, experts have debated why usage of the iOS and Android wallets has fallen short of the original, lofty expectations. Some speculate that usage would rise markedly if the mobile wallets …

Vending machine payments provider USA Technologies Inc. reported Wednesday that The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC has accepted its plan to regain compliance with its listing rule. The company, however, still hasn’t completed an internal investigation of customer contracts that has delayed the filing of its financial reports. The NASDAQ in …

Boosted by its 2017 acquisition of Singular Payments, merchant processor Payment Data Systems Inc. said its credit card transactions rose 109% year-over-year in the third quarter and dollar volume rose 112%. Revenues increased 80% to $6.47 million from $3.59 million in 2017’s third quarter. The company reported a net loss of …

Giant card issuer Chase once again will issue contactless credit and debit cards, the bank announced Wednesday. Chase, a unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co., says it will begin later this year issuing contactless EMV cards bearing the Visa Inc. brand, first to its Chase Freedom Unlimited and Chase Slate …

Rewards platform provider Cardlytics Inc. on Tuesday reported its user base and revenue per active user grew in the third quarter, but the company nonetheless trimmed its full-year revenue forecast. The company’s primary product, Cardlytics Direct, provides merchant-funded rewards programs distributed through financial institutions’ online and mobile-banking sites. Cardlytics Direct …

The e-commerce platform BigCommerce Pty Ltd. on Wednesday announced two new supported payment methods, including PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Venmo service. With the addition of Venmo, Austin-based BigCommerce gave a big lift to PayPal’s strategy  to find revenue for what has been a fast-growing but free peer-to-peer payment service, though merchant pricing …

Sionic Mobile, a provider of payment and rewards technology, announced a single account through which users can pay a range of providers through mobile devices or in-car commerce. Gas Pos, which sells EMV-acceptance services to fuel retailers, announced a $1 million investment from Merus Capital, a venture-capital firm. Bluefin Payment …

Following through on plans disclosed earlier this year, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday formally unveiled the U.S. Faster Payments Council, an industry group charged with collaborating to spur the adoption of faster payments and identify market opportunities. The 22 inaugural members range from retailing giant Walmart Inc. to Visa Inc. …

As the holiday shopping season swings into gear, look for more consumers using their smart phones for shopping—but not so much for making a mobile payment, says GfK, a Germany-based consulting firm, in its latest FutureBuy research. Forty-five percent of all U.S. consumers rank mobile devices, including smart phones and …