Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Due to a data breach that affected an unknown number of customers, Nissan Canada Finance, the financial division of automaker Nissan’s Canadian operation, is contacting all of its 1.13 million current and former customers; the breach may have compromised customer names, credit scores, loan amounts, and other information, Nissan said. …

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced its intention to extend once again the effective date of its massive 2016 rule governing prepaid accounts “to allow additional time for implementation of the final rule.” The announcement does not specify a new effective date. The agency had earlier extended the deadline from …

Swipe, confirm sale, and sign. Swipe, confirm sale, and sign. Checkout on a point-of-sale system is a routine engagement for today’s consumers, and as such, many businesses overlook the opportunities that a POS system can provide. As an advisor to these businesses, you can inform them that POS is no …

Boosted by e-commerce sales, growth in credit card payments far outpaced growth in debit card and automated clearing house payments in 2016, according to newly released findings from the Federal Reserve. Credit card transactions grew 10.2% from 2015’s levels to 37.3 billion and were valued at $3.27 trillion, the Fed …

Bitcoin’s high-flying value has lost some altitude lately, but the cost to perform a transaction is reaching record highs. At the same time, other major cryptocurrencies have also become increasingly expensive not only to buy but to use as a means of exchange. The average fee to perform a Bitcoin …

The holiday shopping season may be coming to a close, but mashups between mobile-wallet providers, merchants, payment card networks, and card issuers are likely to continue indefinitely as all groups seek more transaction volume from consumers. Apple Inc. has been active this holiday season. In one promotion, Apple is offering …

Point-of-sale system maker Touch Dynamic debuted the Breeze Ultra All-In-One POS terminal. Payment Data Systems Inc. said it will sell 1.18 million shares of common stock to institutional investors at $2.55 per share. The merchant processor anticipates net proceeds of $2.75 million after expenses, which it will use for general …

Shares of the small merchant processor Net Element Inc. surged more than 200% Wednesday morning, apparently for no other reason than the company announced it was creating a business unit to pursue opportunities in the nascent blockchain industry. At about 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, Miami-based Net Element’s stock was priced …

Some 55% of all U.S. storefronts were accepting EMV chip cards as of September, according to the latest quarterly data from Visa Inc., released Monday. That comes to more than 2.5 million merchant locations, up 9% from June and 538% from September 2015, when 392,000 locations were accepting chip cards …

Chargeback.com Inc. released the Chargeback App to aid employees in managing a retailer’s chargeback disputes. The commerce-technology provider Big Commerce agreed to make Visa Checkout available to its more than 55,000 merchant clients. More than 28 million card accounts are enrolled in Visa Checkout, which streamlines the payment process with users’ …

The PCI Security Standards Council named Lance J. Johnson to the executive director position. Johnson, who had been chief operating officer at Sequent Software Inc. for the past five years and spent 20 years at Visa Inc., replaces Stephen W. Orfei, the general manager who left earlier this year after …

The blockchain, mobile commerce, fraud, data breaches, and authentication were all hot payments topics in 2017. Expect that to continue into 2018 if the prognostications from several payments executives hold true. Much of their outlook centers on identity and authentication, especially as data breaches, large and small, continue to wreak …

The slow conversion of U.S. gasoline pumps from acceptance of only magnetic-stripe payment cards to EMV chip cards took a step forward Tuesday when payment technology provider NCR Corp. announced that a convenience store in upstate New York had completed its first outdoor EMV transaction using an NCR Optic upgrade …

Fit Pay Inc. will bring contactless-payment technology to wearable devices in Australia under an agreement with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. Fit Pay is a unit of Florida-based NXT-ID Inc. Payments provider BlueSnap Inc. announced integrations with six software and services providers. Bluefin Payment Systems said it received …

Paris-based defense, aerospace, and transportation contractor Thales S.A. announced Monday that it has a €4.8 billion ($5.66 billion) deal to acquire Gemalto N.V., the world’s largest maker of chips for smart cards and mobile phones. The announcement that Thales plans to buy Gemalto for €51 per share ($60.1) comes just …

The consolidation trend sweeping through the merchant-acquiring business made headlines again Monday morning with the news that Total System Services Inc. has agreed to buy Boston-based acquirer and technology provider Cayan LLC for approximately $1.05 billion in cash. The deal, which TSYS says it expects to close in the first …

Visa Inc. fired one of its most prominent executives, Jim McCarthy, executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships, Dec. 1 because of inappropriate relationships with female Visa employees, according to The Wall Street Journal; theJournal said Visa launched an investigation into McCarthy’s actions after CEO Alfred Kelly received an …

With Bitcoin priced near $18,000 Friday morning, and with futures markets already trading Bitcoin contracts or getting set to, investors in the digital currency are riding high. Consumers who want to use Bitcoin to buy things, though, face a market rife with volatility, slow transactions, and high costs. Bitcoin exchanges …

E-commerce platform Magento Inc. announced Instant Purchase, its new one-click payment feature that is now standard on its Magento Commerce system. For merchants, Instant Purchase offers a customizable button, a mobile-optimized process that Campbell, Calif.-based Magento says can reduce time-to-purchase by 90%, automatic shipping to the shopper’s default address, and …

Seven retail trade groups filed a joint amicus brief in a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court in which 11 states, led by Ohio, are appealing a U.S. Court of Appeals decision that upholds American Express Co.’s rule prohibiting merchants from steering customers to cards with lower acceptance costs. …