Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

JPMorgan Chase Bank and its merchant-acquiring affiliate Paymentech have filed a breach-of-contract suit against restaurant operator and Paymentech merchant Landry’s Inc. seeking to recover $20 million in fines from Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. stemming from a 2014-15 data breach at dozens of Landry’s properties. The bank and processor, collectively called …

Point-of-sale terminal maker Verifone Systems Inc. said it talked to “approximately” 42 companies during its go-shop period, which expired at 11:59 p.m. Thursday. None of the companies submitted a bid. As previously announced, publicly held Verifone is set to be acquired during the third quarter by affiliates of an investor …

The same force that decades ago hit the streets and made credit and debit card acceptance nearly universal is revving up in a nascent effort to do the same for cryptocurrency. Aliant Payment Systems, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based independent sales organization that has been marketing Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin acceptance …

Procrastination is no longer an option. Time to comply with the massive General Data Protection Regulation for businesses that collect data about European Union consumers has run out. And with the regulation going into effect Friday, many U.S. payments companies have found they, too, have had to change their data-collection …

Representatives of large retailers including Walmart Inc. and Home Depot Inc. met with federal regulators this week to voice their concerns about a common buy button for e-commerce under development by the major card networks, The Wall Street Journal reported. The retailers’ main concern reportedly is how a buy button …

Mitek Systems Inc. announced Wednesday that it acquired Paris-based Artificial Intelligence and Image Analysis (A2iA), a developer of text-recognition and imaging software, for €42.5 million ($49.8 million) in cash and stock. The move bolsters San Diego-based Mitek’s already strong position in the remote deposit capture market and gives it access …

Payment card processor First Data Corp. is getting into student-loan processing with its acquisition of Navient Corp.’s technology platform. Terms of the deal announced Wednesday were not revealed. An undisclosed number of Navient employees will become First Data employees, and Jeff Whorley, who has been group president of asset management …

Online lender Kabbage Inc.’s ambition to enter payment processing by the end of the year, reported this week by Reuters, is a logical extension of their current platform, but one clouded by a host of uncertainties and rife with potential missteps, according to experts contacted by Digital Transactions News. Nine-year-old …

Shares of processor EVO Payments Inc. began trading on the Nasdaq market Wednesday at an initial price of $16. The company put 14 million shares out to market, for expected gross proceeds of $224 million. In early trading Wednesday the stock was at $19.60, a 22.5% increase from its opening value. EVO …

Tablet-based point-of-sale provider ShopKeep Inc. announced it is introducing an Android version of its ShopKeep Register app, which up to now has been available only for Apple Inc.’s iOS operating system. The app will be available first on Clover devices from First Data Corp., which launched it for Clover Mini earlier …

In four years, the Starbucks mobile-payment service, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, will continue to garner large shares of users, but not as much as they do today. That’s the forecast from research firm eMarketer Inc., released Tuesday. Of the four major mobile-payments services, Starbucks Corp.’s app will …

Some 97% of Visa Inc.’s total U.S. payment volume stemmed from EMV chip cards in March, according to the card network’s latest periodic report on EMV’s progress in the United States. EMV volume totaled $70.7 billion, up from $4.8 billion in September 2015, the last full month before the country …

Bankrate LLC’s latest study of checking account pricing at credit unions found that ATM surcharges and foreign fees haven’t changed much in the past year.  The April study of the top 50 credit unions by deposits revealed that ATM surcharges—fees charged by ATM owners to non-customers who use their machines—actually …

What do you get when you add 4 and 11? In the case of Worldpay Inc., it’s 1. The merged version of the former Vantiv Inc. and Worldpay plc moved to the number-one position in The Strawhecker Group’s annual directory of U.S. merchant acquirers. Released Monday, the directory ranks industry …

The digital payments innovators used to be Mastercard and Visa, but with the rise of PayPal, it’s been a new game. Then along came Alipay and Apple Pay and many other local or specialized payment methods, making the playing field even more competitive for these card payment platforms. Visa Checkout …

Payments industry veteran Dan Henry has been named chairman of 3PEA International Inc., a prepaid card program manager. President and chief executive Mark Newcomer, who co-founded the company and has served as chairman since 2006, will become vice chairman. Henry was until recently chief executive of prepaid card specialist NetSpend, …

The proliferation of smart watches, voice commerce, and vehicle-based payments has got merchants abuzz about the potential for making purchases more convenient. But securing these payments is a scattershot affair, with each provider wielding its own protocols, attendees learned at the CNP Expo this week in Orlando, Fla. Payments companies …

The PCI Security Standards Council issued what it calls a “minor update” to the current version 3.2 of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard. Version 3.2.1 adds no new requirements and is meant to eliminate any confusion regarding effective dates for existing PCI DSS requirements and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) …

In its biggest acquisition yet, PayPal Holdings Inc. is buying Stockholm-based payments firm iZettle AB for $2.2 billion. The San Jose, Calif.-based online payments provider late Thursday confirmed an afternoon of rumors about the pending deal. Jacob de Geer, iZettle’s chief executive and co-founder, will stay on after the acquisition’s …

Retail ATM network owner and operator Cardtronics plc said Fifth Third Bank will place its brand on more than 800 Cardtronics ATMs at Speedway LLC convenience stores in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. In related news, Indiana-based German American Bank said it has joined Cardtronics plc’s Allpoint network, giving its customers access …