Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Payments observers wondering when, and where, blockchain technology would take hold may want to pay close attention to cross-border remittances. Alipay Payment Services (HK) Ltd. said on Monday that it has launched a mobile-wallet based money-transfer service between Hong Kong and the Philippines using a blockchain backbone. The service, which …

In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that American Express Co.’s anti-steering rules for merchants do not violate federal antitrust law. The conservative majority’s decision, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, caps a case that dates back to 2010 and involves merchants who wanted to steer merchants to …

VyStar Credit Union joined the Cardtronics plc network, enabling its members to have fee-free access at more than 20,000 Cardtronics ATMs. ATM operator Prineta LLC said it is the new ATM vendor at the Renaissance Columbus Westerville-Polaris Hotel in Columbus, Ohio. Payments provider Worldnet TPS Ltd. said it has completed …

Payment volume through biller-direct Web sites continues to grow at the expense of bank bill-pay sites, according to new findings from Boston-based Aite Group LLC. Some 73% of the online bill payments made by consumers in 2016 went through biller-direct sites, up from 62% in 2010, according to Aite. Meanwhile, …

PayPal Holdings Inc. said it is buying Simility, a fraud-prevention and risk-management platform, for $120 million. Once the deal closes—expected in the third quarter—PayPal merchants will get access to Simility’s fraud tools, the company said. This is PayPal’s second acquisition announced this week. Wednesday PayPal said it was buying Hyperwallet for …

Canadian fintech Mobeewave could see its contactless-payment service for Samsung smart phones expand thanks to a new agreement with National Bank of Canada. And this week a British financial trade group announced that contactless payments in the United Kingdom jumped 97% in 2017. Dubbed National Bank Easy Pay, the service …

The mobile point-of-sale revolution is picking up momentum, despite having started nearly a decade ago with the first attachable card-reading devices for mobile phones. Projections from United Kingdom-based Juniper Research released this week indicate the installed base of mobile point-of-sale devices of all kinds worldwide—including integrated technology from major vendors—will …

PayPal Holdings Inc. blocked sales of the violent video game Active Shooter, which lets players choose the role of a gunman terrorizing a school or of a SWAT team trying to stop him, the Associated Press reported; the game had been pulled from the online marketplace Steam after complaints but …

Zelle’s gestation as a favored person-to-person payments service may be nearing fulfillment. A new survey from LendEDU finds that, nine months after its June 2017 debut, more consumers had become aware of the bank-backed service. In 2017, only 6.1% had heard of Zelle. By the time of the survey, that …

Its pending $2.2 billion acquisition of Sweden’s iZettle still awaits final approval, but that didn’t stop PayPal Holdings Inc. from announcing late Tuesday that it has a deal to buy payout provider Hyperwallet for $400 million in cash. San Francisco-based Hyperwallet is an international specialist in provisioning payments, commissions, and …

Adyen touts its omnichannel approach. It has integrated e-commerce with in-store sales, for example, at hip men’s clothier Bonobos. The Dutch processor’s growth locomotive, however, is, and for the foreseeable future will remain, e-commerce. While not enjoying Mastercard’s network power, Adyen has built platform economics by credentialing and securely integrating …

Merchant processor Paysafe North America said that by mid-July it will start offering same-day settlement to small U.S. merchants. The service will be offered in collaboration with Company.com, a services platform for small businesses, and Ingo Money, a push-payments provider. Visa Inc.’s 10-hour service interruption in Europe on June 1 …

The fraud-fighting tools of the future for e-commerce retailers include artificial intelligence, multimerchant velocity checks, and fingerprint identification, according to a poll of 166 merchants for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. None of those newer tools is in widespread use today, but more merchants plan to use them going …

Dutch payments processor Adyen N.V. is in the limelight just as the payments business has gotten hot. Ant Financial just raised the biggest private funding round ever—$14 billion at a $150 billion valuation, in part on the back of its Alipay unit. These are new and nontraditional entrants. The old …

Payment gateway Merchant Link said the Agilsys rGuest Pay v1.6 software for the hospitality industry is approved as a certified interface on Merchant Link’s network. Agilysis develops software for the hospitality industry. Payment gateway USAePay said the cash-discount program from Paradise POS, developer of iOS-based point-of-sale software, will be available …

A lobbying group of payment networks and card issuers released consumer survey results Monday that it says show merchants should “step up and catch up” regarding payment card security and innovation. “Time and time again, retailers have shown they are more interested in cutting their own costs instead of making …

GasBuddy LLC, the fuel-price comparison service, said Monday more than 300,000 U.S. drivers have enrolled in Pay with GasBuddy, its fuel-discount program that uses the automated clearing house for transactions. Launched last year, Pay with GasBuddy connects a consumer’s checking account with a GasBuddy-issued card. After enrolling in the service …

Finastra, a London-based vendor of digital-banking software, announced Monday it has acquired Malauzai Software Inc., a 9-year-old company based in Austin, Texas. Terms were not announced. The deal brings to Finastra a company serving more than 350 community financial institutions with solutions for such digital services as mobile remote deposit …

Fuel-pump maker Gilbarco Veeder-Root launched an exclusive EMV dispenser program for Chevron and Texaco retailers as the petroleum industry prepares for the 2020 EMV liability shift. Petroleum Card Services said the Oklahoma Petroleum Marketers & Convenience-Store Association named it as a payment-processing referral partner for its members. Garmin International Inc. launched …

By 2020, nearly 33% of merchants say the mobile channel will account for at least half of their total revenue. This, and other mobile-payments insights, come from the Kount Inc. 2018 Mobile Payments & Fraud Survey released Thursday. Now in its sixth year, the survey of almost 600 merchants found …