Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Concepts like tokenization, biometrics, and secure e-commerce have attracted much attention in recent years, and in the past couple of days the nation’s two major payments networks have moved to bring that concept closer to reality for online payments. Visa on Thursday announced a deal with Netflix Inc. to expand …

Data-security provider ControlScan Inc. acquired Dunbar Cybersecurity, a move that will strengthen ControlScan’s threat-detection and response capabilities, the company said. Terms were not disclosed. Mastercard Inc. said beginning in April 2019 cardholder signatures on the back panel of its cards will be optional. It no longer will require issuers to …

As technology drives us into a new era of retailing, merchants are starting to view the omnichannel experience as necessity over novelty, and with that, comes high expectations for the newest streamlined POS solutions.  Fortunately for the MLS and ISO community, Electronic Payments is invested in something greater than just …

Visa Inc. is banking big on its Visa Token Service with the addition of 20 acquirer, gateway, and technology companies signing up to offer the network token. The card brand Wednesday announced the additions, called requestors because they request tokens for the credit and debit cards processed through their systems. …

Prepaid card program manager Netspend Corp. and its business partners were scrambling Wednesday morning to clear up an apparent glitch preventing some users of a prepaid product for payroll from accessing their paychecks. Issuing partner MetaBank released a statement to news media indicating it is working to clear up the …

Shortly after the former Sage Payment Solutions rebranded as Paya early this year, company president Greg Cohen said the merchant processor would play a “value game,” not a low-price game. Following that strategy, Paya on Wednesday unveiled Paya Connect, a platform for software firms and independent sales organizations to create …

With technology companies increasingly eyeing financial services, a survey from Brookfield, Wis.-based bank processor Fiserv Inc. indicates 55% of consumers feel comfortable using a company like Apple Inc. or Alphabet Inc.’s Google to pay bills, up from 40% in 2017. Thirty-nine percent would take out a loan from a tech-company service, …

Marks Jewelers is the latest merchant to begin accepting digital currencies, including Bitcoin and Litecoin. Announced Tuesday by e-commerce platform Shopping Cart Elite, which is supplying the enabling acceptance technology, the move means the Montgomeryville, Pa.-based jeweler also accepts Bitcoin Diamond, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Dash, Ethereum, and Zcoin for …

Payments-networking provider Transaction Network Services has agreed to acquire Advam, an Australian provider of unattended and e-commerce payments processing. Terms were not disclosed. E-commerce technology provider tru Payments LLC launched tru Shop-by-Payment, a cloud-based service that lets consumers shop for a new car and auto financing at the same time. Bill-payment specialist …

In the hotly contested market for person-to-person transactions, PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Venmo unit has rarely made a misstep. But over the weekend the popular service said it will raise its fee from 25 cents to 1% for so-called instant transfers users make to move money from their Venmo account to …

American Express Co. said it is using the Ethoca Eliminator service from chargeback-mitigation specialist Ethoca, which can help prevent disputes for U.S. merchants by providing more detailed transaction information in real time to AmEx card users when they spot an unrecognized charge. Blockchain-payments provider BitPay said merchants now can receive their …

Unless you’re talking about check-writing or cash usage, just about every measure of transactions and volumes in payments is up, up, up these days. But a new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta says consumers actually made fewer payments in October 2017 than they did a year earlier. …

With the economy still humming along, three of the nation’s biggest banks on Friday reported healthy increases in third-quarter payment card purchase volumes. JPMorgan Chase & Co., owner of the nation’s biggest bank-run merchant acquirer, posted $343.8 billion in merchant-processing volume, a 14% increase from $301.6 billion in 2017’s third …

E-commerce processor Shopify Inc. opened its first brick-and-mortar “entrepreneur space” in downtown Los Angeles. The site will provide in-person support, training, and education to Shopify merchants, and the company’s suite of retail hardware products will be available. Shopify says it has 10,000 merchants in L.A. and 80,000 in California. Cybersecurity …

Consumers with PayPal accounts will be able to withdraw cash from, and deposit cash into, these accounts at participating U.S. Walmart Inc. locations, Walmart announced Thursday. The deal means PayPal accountholders will pay $3 per cash-in and cash-out transaction. San Jose, Calif.-based PayPal says this is the first time its …

Sarah Friar, chief financial officer of merchant processor Square Inc., will leave the company in December after six years to become chief executive of Nextdoor, developer of a private social-network app for neighborhoods. David Viniar, Square’s lead independent director, will lead the search for a new CFO. Square’s stock fell …

After years of planning and deliberation, the payments industry is starting to announce services based on real-time processing. One of the first is Mastercard Inc., which on Wednesday unveiled a system that will allow consumers to view bills and then transfer funds to the billers within seconds. Experts see an …

The average ATM surcharge increased this year for the 14th year in a row, but ATM foreign fees eased a bit, according to Bankrate Inc.’s latest annual study of ATM and checking account fees. New York City-based Bankrate says the average surcharge is now $3.02, up 5 cents, or 1.7%, …

Fiserv Inc. said it connected more than 100 banks and credit unions so far to the Zelle peer-to-peer payments network. The institutions are now live or will be going live soon, the company said. The average surcharge assessed by the ATM owner for an out-of-network transaction rose for the 14th …

Check scams come in many forms. It could start with someone offering to buy something you advertised in the newspaper, on Craigslist, or eBay. Or someone could offer to pay you to do work at home, give you an “advance” on a sweepstake you’ve supposedly won, or pay the first …