Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Shopify Inc. said it is expanding a service that will let Instagram users buy products from select merchants without leaving the Instagram app. The service, which Shopify has been testing since early this year, lets merchants tag their posts to connect users to their catalogs. The photo-sharing service Instagram, owned by …

Shares of payments companies outperformed the general stock-market indexes in September, and beat most of them in the third quarter and the year so far, investment firm Barrington Research reported Monday. A group of 29 payments stocks posted a mean return of 2.74% in September, its ninth straight month of …

EMV chip card payments at the U.S. point of sale have been around, officially at least, for two years now, but consumers still perceive them as slow, and many merchants still don’t accept chip cards, according to a poll of consumers and retailers by merchant processor Cayan. The time to …

While denying any wrongdoing in the matter, card manufacturer CPI Card Group Inc. settled two patent lawsuits with Gemalto S.A. Under the terms of the settlement, CPI Card Group agreed to make a one-time $750,000 payment in the fourth quarter. Both lawsuits will be dismissed and both parties agreed not …

  In order to compete in the marketplace, ISOs and agents are going to have to adapt and learn to navigate the rapid tech-driven needs of their merchants based on the consumer demand. Omnichannel is cited as the leading digital priority for 22 percent of retailers [i], providing consumers with …

A panel of processing executives on Thursday sought to shake an audience of merchant-sales representatives out of traditional ways of thinking about critical matters ranging from pricing to new technology. In some cases, years-old tactics came under attack. “How many of you are giving a free terminal away and competing …

With the rise of the independent software vendor, do traditional independent sales organizations still have a role to play—and if they do, what is it? That question may have been unthinkable a few years ago, but now some observers see ISVs shoving ISOs aside as they code new applications for …

The Federal Reserve’s call for a faster-payments system to be in place in the United States by 2020 has been termed everything from a vision to a goal, a soft goal, or a deadline. One thing it isn’t is a mandate. So can faster payments arrive in less than two …

Grocer Whole Foods Market, now a unit of Amazon.com Inc., said it is investigating a breach of the point-of-sale software used in its taprooms and full-service restaurants in some of its stores. Whole Foods did not say how many locations or how many cards are affected. It said the payment system for the …

It was just over a month ago that a ranking U.S. Department of Justice official told Congress that Operation Choke Point had ended. But the ATM Industry Association on Wednesday said it is distributing materials to its members to help them deal with the “lingering impact” of the controversial program. …

Canadian pension-fund manager Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and private-equity firm Novacap said they would invest in Quebec-based Pivotal Payments, valuing the merchant processor at about C$525 million ($424 million), Pivotal Payments announced. Processor First Data Corp. introduced its “Disburse-to-Debit” service that pushes funds across debit networks so that businesses can …

Merchant processor Square Inc. will provide payment services to Eventbrite Inc., which provides a platform for ticket sales, and will invest $25 million in the company, Square announced Thursday. Earlier, Square said it will make Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay service available to merchants using its Square Checkout online service. Square said …

There are still many unknowns, but siding and the roof are on order for the frame of the Federal Reserve’s faster-payments project. That’s the message conveyed Tuesday by Fed officials and payments-industry executives who participated in a years-long effort to speed up U.S. electronic payments as well as make them …

Add Sonic Drive-In to the roster of merchants that have experienced a breach of their payments systems. The Oklahoma City-based fast-food chain confirmed to Digital Transaction News that it has been investigating the incident. On Tuesday, security blog KrebsOnSecurity.com reported the breach affecting an unknown number of Sonic’s point-of-sale systems. …

Consumer-goods manufacturer Shinola has signed up to use the point-of-sale financing service from Affirm Inc. The ATM Industry Association released an Operation Choke Point resource kit for ATM operators. The association said ATM operators continue to receive account-closure notices despite the Department of Justice’s public statement to end the enforcement program. Merchant services provider SignaPay Ltd. released the PayLo …

 Sysnet CEO, Gabriel Moynagh, explains how replacing revenue from PCI DSS penalties for non-compliance with a managed service offering is the opportunity acquirers have been waiting for in improving customer relationships and boosting merchant security. The worldwide Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was set up to help …

You’ve heard of subscriptions for magazines and concert tickets. Now the subscription model is coming to golf clubs. TaylorMade Golf Co. on Monday said an online purchasing and financing program it started in April has generated a 30% increase in conversions and a 5% jump in average order value. The …

Consumer affinity for the cheapest gas prices birthed smart-phone app GasBuddy, and now the app has sired a way for consumers to actually make the payment at fill up. Boston-based GasBuddy recently announced its Pay with GasBuddy service, which connects a consumer’s checking account with a GasBuddy-issued card. After enrolling …

A new unit formed by the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission will have among its responsibilities “violations involving distributed-ledger technology and initial coin offerings,” according to an announcement from the SEClate Monday. What the agency calls its Cyber Unit will also focus on market manipulation via social …

First Tech Federal Credit Union has activated the Zelle person-to-person payment service in its mobile-banking app, which has 110,000 users. Puerto Rico-based payment processor Evertec Inc. said it will donate $1 million for relief efforts and that it continues to process ATM and point-of-sale transactions on the island, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria. …