Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Discover Financial Services cardholders soon won’t have to sign for their credit and debit transactions made at the point of sale. As of April 2018, Discover is dropping the signature requirement for transactions made on the Discover Global Network in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, the Riverwoods, …

Square Inc. late Tuesday said it is expanding its Bitcoin pilot as the cryptocurrency continues to climb, briefly breaching the $13,000 level early Wednesday. The pilot, which Square launched four weeks ago for what it said was a “small” number of Square Cash users, is now being made available to …

Credit and debit card fraud at the point of sale is declining precipitously two years after the payment card networks’ EMV chip card liability shifts took effect, but identity, online, and so-called fallback fraud all have risen, according to an analysis of card issuers’ experiences from Auriemma Consulting Group. New …

Apple Inc. on Monday officially entered an increasingly crowded arena of players looking to carve out a share of the market for person-to-person payments. Apple Pay Cash, which the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant first announced six months ago, went live following the release of iOS 11.2, Apple’s latest operating-system update …

Finastra, a banking-technology services firm, announced PNC Bank, a unit of The PNC Financial Services Group Inc., is using its services as part of the bank’s participation in RTP, the real-time payments service from The Clearing House. Fifty-percent of U.S. banks plan to increase their investments in real-time payment systems in …

Target Brands Inc. finally unveiled its long-rumored mobile-payments service. Announced Monday, Wallet resides in the Target app for iOS and Android devices. Consumers can only enroll a Target RedCard, available as a debit or credit card, in the app. Target gift card enrollment is coming, too, the company says. To …

Payments provider WePay is officially part of JPMorgan Chase & Co., WePay announced Monday. The banking giant wasted no time putting WePay to work as the backbone of a new payments service from Volusion LLC, an e-commerce platform. Chase announced in October it was buying Redwood City, Calif.-based WePay for …

Online payment processor Payza announced Monday that its customers can now use funds in their Payza accounts buy alternatives to Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency market leader. The news comes six months after Payza launched a service enabling customers to sell so-called altcoins such as Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Dash, Monero, and Zcash. …

PayPal Holdings Inc. and its TIO Networks unit are arranging free credit monitoring for consumers after finding evidence of a data breach at TIO that the companies say has potentially affected personally identifiable information for about 1.6 million customers of TIO’s bill-pay service. The unauthorized access could have compromised data …

CME Group Inc. said on Friday it will launch a futures contract for Bitcoin on Dec. 18, a move some expect will lend considerable stability to the market for the 8-year-old digital currency. Also on Friday, Chicago-based CME’s crosstown rival, Cboe Global Markets Inc., said it will announce “shortly” an …

Fraudsters have caused 1,202 data breaches this year as of Nov. 29, up nearly 18% from the same period a year earlier, and they’ve exposed 172.4 million records, according to the latest figures from the Identity Theft Resource Center. Some 156.4 million Social Security numbers were compromised in the breaches, …

Processor First Data Corp. completed its previously announced, $760 million acquisition of independent sales organization BluePay Holdings Inc.  Payment-services provider Shift4 Corp. announced its EMV-certified services are now available to users of Posera Ltd.’s Maitre’D point-of-sale hospitality software. Infinite Peripherals launched the InfineaRetail Airline Edition point-of-sale suite of products. Mastercard …

Holiday gifts and everyday products may garner much of the attention when it comes to mobile-commerce transactions, but a tire retailer is finding success with the technology, too. SimpleTire, a Trevose, Pa.-based online seller, found that consumers were in the mood to buy tires online on Cyber Monday. SimpleTire says …

Amazon.com Inc. is recruiting outside software developers and merchants to create functions that work with its Alexa voice-command system and the Amazon Pay service so that consumers can make purchases using their Amazon payment credentials at both physical and online merchants. Seattle-based Amazon made the announcement at its big Amazon …

PayPal Holdings Inc. has restored some service in its TIO Networks bill-pay operation but pressing questions remain about the security vulnerability that spurred PayPal to shut down the service and about how TIO’s problems will affect PayPal chief executive Dan Schulman’s strategy to serve the underbanked population. The incident also …

B2 Processing Solutions launched the B2 PINPad Drivers, a product to help merchants migrate point-of-sale applications to EMV and contactless payments. Payments provider BlueSnap Inc. said its merchants experienced a 125% increase in mobile-wallet use on Thanksgiving, 124% increases on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and a 79% increase …

The underground market for personally identifiable information is flourishing, with criminals paying as little as 20 cents to as much as $15 for verified credentials across the dark market. That’s the latest from RSA Security LLC, a data-security company. The Bedford, Mass.-based firm released the 2018 Cybercriminal Shopping List Tuesday, …

Much as cryptocurrency skeptics would like to set aside Bitcoin, the currency keeps intruding into the payments world. On Wednesday, Bitcoin began trading above $11,000, only a day after it sailed past the $10,000 mark and just three days after pushing past $9,000. But Bitcoin bullishness isn’t helping Square Inc. …

Processor Jack Henry & Associates Inc. announced late Tuesday that it has a deal to acquire Ensenta Corp., a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based provider of remote deposit capture and payment and risk-control services. Founded in 2001, Ensenta provides more than 1,100 financial institutions and government agencies with software-as-a-service products distributed via …

Payment consulting and testing firm Fime obtained D-Payment Application Specification (D-PAS) accreditation from Discover Financial Services for the Pulse debit network, meaning Fime’s EMV chip card service for merchant acquirers is now available on all of Discover’s networks that include Discover and Diners Club International in addition to Pulse. SalePoint …