Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

U.S. Bancorp’s Payment Services unit posted a 28% gain in net income in the second quarter, in part due to higher merchant-processing volumes. The unit, one of five major divisions at the Minneapolis-based super-regional bank, produced a $361 million profit versus $282 million a year earlier, or 21% of the …

After weeks of listless trading, Bitcoin has rallied over the past 24 hours, shooting up from the high-$6,000s to the mid-$7,000s in a move that has brought new energy to other leading cryptocurrencies. Coincidentally, Mastercard Inc. on Tuesday was awarded a patent for a system that could allow users of …

Walmart shoppers who have access to Apple Pay and have a payment preference are twice as likely to use Apple Pay rather than Walmart Pay, but discounts and other deals could tip the scales back in Walmart’s favor, according to a study by Auriemma Consulting Group. Payments provider Century Business …

Payments gurus for years have touted benefits like faster transactions, improved security, and associated rewards when it comes to mobile payments. Now a study released Tuesday indicates converting off-the-books cash payments to digital methods could also boost a nation’s gross domestic product and augment the flow of tax revenues to …

Co-Op Financial Services said it is adding cardless ATM transactions to its roster of services for credit unions. Dubbed Cardless Cash Access, the service is available on Diebold Nixdorf and NCR ATMs within the Co-Op ATM Network that are managed using the Co-Op Terminal Driving program. Hyperwallet, whose technology enables …

Cross-border payment specialist PPRO Group raised $50 million in a funding round led by PayPal Holdings Inc., Citi Ventures, and HPE Growth Capital, the London-based company announced Monday. The funds will be used to expand internationally, including the United States, where it opened an Atlanta office earlier this year. PPRO …

Bank of America Corp.’s customers made 35.1 million Zelle person-to-person payments in the second quarter, 142% higher than the 14.5 million Zelle payments they made a year earlier, the Charlotte, N.C.-based banking giant reported Monday. The value of the P2P payments totaled $10 billion, double the $5 billion from 2017’s …

Payment processor Worldpay Inc. said it will bring Mastercard Inc.’s Pay by Bank mobile and online payment application to its United Kingdom merchants in early 2019, and also will use other Mastercard digital services. Launched in 2016 by London-based payment-technology developer Vocalink, which Mastercard acquired in May 2017, Pay by …

Online travel agency CheapAir.com says it has found a workaround that will let it continue to accept cryptocurrency, and Payroc LLC has become the latest payments provider to offer crypto to merchant clients. Calabasas, Calif.-based CheapAir notified customers on Friday that it has found a new provider for Bitcoin acceptance …

The New York Department of Financial Services has granted a virtual-currency license to cryptocurrency processor BitPay, allowing it to do business with companies and consumers in the state of New York. In an apparent cost-cutting effort, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is no longer including the Samsung Pay mobile-payments service in its …

Two of the nation’s largest banks on Friday released some details about their payments businesses indicating robust growth despite their size. JPMorgan Chase & Co., which operates one of the nation’s biggest merchant-processing centers, reported its merchant volume grew 12% in the quarter ended June 30, to $330.8 billion. For …

Half of all Visa transactions inside venues in Russia hosting soccer’s World Cup since the opening match June 14 have been contactless via cards, mobile devices, and wearables, the card network reports. Users of PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Venmo peer-to-peer payment service will be able to use Venmo within the Uber …

An international survey of financial executives shows that checks are still the most commonly used method of business payments, but paperless methods aren’t far behind. The April survey of 914 chief financial officers and other senior finance executives, including 501 from the United States, for fleet-fueling and corporate-payments provider WEX …

What do diners want most when they go out to eat? Apparently, easy ordering and payment. That’s the big takeaway in the “Restaurant Digital Crossroads: The Race to Meet Guest Expectations” report released Thursday. Hassle-free ordering and payment are especially important to younger consumers, defined as those between 18 and 37 …

Facebook Inc. enabled payments via so-called chatbots back in 2016, and now the massive social network is acting to standardize and streamline consumers’ use of the digital gadgets on sellers’ pages. The United States Patent And Trademark Office published on June 28 an application from Facebook for a method for …

The top four uses for peer-to-peer payments on the Zelle network are splits for rent, meals, utility bills, and gifting, according to a survey of 9,000 mobile-banking users. The results were released by Early Warning Services LLC, which operates the bank-owned Zelle service. Payments processor Computer Services Inc. reported a …

Maybe being number one in something isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. For instance, the United States leads the world in the per capita cost—$233—of a data breach, finds the “2018 Cost of a Data Breach Study: Global Overview,” released Wednesday. That figure bests Canada, at $202 per …

Processor Net Element Inc. said its first-half payment volume rose 37% year over year to $1.62 billion. Most of the volume came from the company’s North American subsidiary, Unified Payments, which handled $1.4 billion in payments, up 40%. Handpoint, a mobile point-of-sale payments provider, announced an integration with RxTrax, a …

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday accusing former Heartland Payment Systems Inc. chief executive Robert O. Carr and his girlfriend, Katherine M. Hanratty, with insider trading in connection with Heartland’s sale to Global Payments Inc. in April 2016.  The lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, …

Does it pay to bet on payments? If the bet is on Adyen N.V., it pays handsomely so far. The Dutch processor and payments gateway is showing no signs of slowing down since its initial public offering nearly four weeks ago. The stock, which trades on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, …