Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

China-based UnionPay International has created a mobile-payments platform the big payment network hopes will further expand adoption of its payment services beyond its home country. The platform, dubbed UnionPay International Mobile Payment Service (UMPS), enables banks, merchants, mobile-phone manufacturers, and other third parties to access UnionPay mobile services through open …

Blockchain start-up Lightning Labs raised $2.5 million in seed financing from investors that included Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Square Inc. and Twitter Inc., CNBC reported. Lightning Labs is developing technology that it says will make Bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper. The Square Cash app supports Bitcoin. BlockCypher, a blockchain …

The PCI Security Standards Council is making changes to its qualified integrators and resellers certification program by reducing the fee to $100, making the certification an individual one, and shortening the training-course time, the council announced Wednesday. Launched in 2012, the QIR program’s focus has been on improving payments security for …

Some experts may dismiss cryptocurrency as impractical for retail payments, but at least one independent sales organization is doubling—make that tripling—down on crypto for merchant acceptance. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Aliant Payment Systems Inc. last week launched programs for Ether and Litecoin to go along with one for Bitcoin that it …

Payments provider First American Payment Systems said its payment-processing services are now available to merchants using the Apptizer Order Ahead Mobile App from developer Apptizer Inc. ATM deployer Payment Alliance International said it and multicurrency payment processor Planet Payment Inc. extended a multiyear contract for dynamic currency conversion at PAI’s …

Not many merchants are doing it yet, but surcharging credit card transactions will soon gain more acceptance as businesses do whatever they can to reduce their card-acceptance costs. That’s the expectation of merchant-processing executives who participated in a panel Tuesday at the Southeast Acquirers Association annual conference in Orlando, Fla. …

Independent sales organizations and acquirers looking for a payment gateway have another resource to use. Payments consultancy The Strawhecker Group recently released its Payment Gateway Directory, which catalogs 58 data points about 73 companies. The report also analyzed the performance of the gateways by assessing the account-boarding process, evaluating developer …

If the payments industry needed further evidence that the EMV frenzy unleashed in the United States in 2015 is cooling off, it can find it in the fourth-quarter 2017 and full-year results posted Monday by CPI Card Group, one of the country’s chief manufacturers of chip cards. U.S. sales of …

Transaction Network Services announced its Global Wireless Access service now supports 4G roaming in more than 60 nations for use with mobile point-of-sale terminals. Fitbit Inc., maker of wearable fitness devices, released the Fitbit Versa smart watch that includes a contactless-payments capability. Payments provider i2c Inc. announced plans to open …

More than anything else, customer demographics will drive mobile-commerce strategies for airlines, finds a study from CellPoint Mobile, a mobile-commerce vendor specializing in the travel industry. In the Miami-based company’s “Mobile Outlook 2018 Report” released last week, it found that, among airline payment professionals in the North America, 56% cited …

VeriFone Systems Inc. introduced its Carbon Mobile 5, a point-of-sale device that fits in the palm of the hand and can run payment, loyalty, and inventory-management applications on the Android operating system. Financial Transmission Network Inc. (FTNI) said Merchants Foodservice, which FTNI says is the 12th-largest U.S. food-service distributor, will …

In an effort to make its cards more financially attractive to merchants, American Express Co. plans to cut its worldwide discount rate by potentially up to three times the level it had previously predicted for 2018. AmEx, generally the costliest of the major card brands for merchants to accept, typically …

Cross-border payments provider Veem announced it now offers working capital to merchants through a deal with merchant-financier BlueVine. Payments provider Bluefin Payment Systems LLC said its services will be available to users of practice-management software from Rev360 that is designed for use in eye-care practices. Payments provider Century Business Solutions …

VeriFone Systems Inc.’s North American revenues dipped sharply in the quarter ended Jan. 31, but the point-of-sale terminal and payment software provider nonetheless said it exceeded its financial expectations as software and services sales rose even as hardware sales fell. San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone on Thursday reported total revenues of …

The search by online-payments kingpins for avenues into physical-world stores reached a new milestone with the acquisition by Stripe Inc. of point-of-sale technologist Index Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, according to an Index spokesperson, who added the company has no immediate comment on the transaction. A Stripe …

Merchants wondering whether it’s worth it to invest in improving the consumer experience on their mobile Web sites or mobile-shopping apps may want to consider the findings of Worldpay Inc.’s “Mobile Payment Journey” survey. In the survey, released this week, 37% of U.S. consumers said they would spend more for …

The newbie bank-controlled Zelle person-to-person payments service already is a major player on the P2P scene, but it could win even greater adoption through clear messaging, a mobile-first orientation, more emphasis on its underutilized request feature, and an appeal beyond Millennials. Those and many other recommendations and observations are included …

Mobile-payment and -loyalty provider LevelUp announced an integration with Gusto Point of Sale, a vendor of Web, kiosk, and mobile technology for restaurants. Under a settlement between the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and The Bancorp Bank, the prepaid card issuer is to pay a $2 million fine and nearly $1.3 …

Bitcoin as a payment method may have its critics, but apparently some state governments looking for new ways to collect taxes aren’t too concerned. Illinois is now the third state to introduce legislation that would clear the way for citizens to pay their obligations with cryptocurrency, joining Arizona and Georgia. …

The number of debit cards compromised at ATMs and merchant terminals increased 10% in the United States last year, according to antifraud-technology vendor FICO. Newtek Business Services Inc., owner of Newtek Merchant Solutions and Premier Payments LLC, says its payments unit processed $6.1 billion in volume last year. Point-of-sale terminal …