Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

    There is a desire to make money and the desire to avoid risk. In between is where profit lies. As many ISOs and merchant sales agents know, higher volume, complex, higher risk and hard to place merchants represent a significant profit opportunity. But to benefit, you need the …

Apple Inc.’s “Lose your wallet” Apple Pay promotion apparently paid off handsomely for Square Inc. The promotion, which ran June 23-25, saw 36 local merchants in two San Francisco neighborhoods offer discounts or free items with a purchase when consumers paid for the purchase with Apple Pay, the brand’s mobile-payment …

Never mind that the Democratic administration that created Operation Choke Point is gone, a Republican Congressman wants to be doubly-certain that the controversial program that tries to cut off payment services to fraudulent merchants dies. So he has proposals to kill Operation Choke Point in not one but two bills. In …

Ripple Labs announced the rollout of a real-time remittance service between Thailand and Japan, based on Ripple’s blockchain. The rollout follows what was said to be the first blockchain-based commercial money transfer across borders, which occurred in April between Spain and Mexico and involved Ripple’s technology. CryptoCoin Creations released its CryptoCoinTracker 2.1, an …

Cardless cash access at ATMs is expanding. ATM operator Cardtronics plc, which owns or operates more than 233,000 ATMs globally, is adding FIS Cardless Cash access to its U.S. machines, Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) announced Thursday. Launched in 2015, FIS Cardless Cash enables consumers to stage cash withdrawals using …

Canadian merchants now have a self-service tool to accept digital cash in stores via the MintChip Retail Payment Platform announced Wednesday by nanoPay Corp. NanoPay purchased MintChip, a digital currency developed by the Royal Canadian Mint, in 2016. “Since acquiring MintChip from the Royal Canadian Mint, we have focused on enhancing …

With much of the payments business focused on mobile payments, merchants are making progress in dealing with the payment method but are still lagging in key areas, such as the ability to identify overseas transactions, according to survey results released Thursday. Risk-detection, in particular, is an area where results are …

Point-of-sale technology vendor ScanSource Inc. has agreed to acquire POS Portal, a supplier of payment devices and services, for $144.9 million in cash plus an earn-out payment up to $13.2 million contingent on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the 12 months leading up to Nov. 30. The deal is expected …

Checks currently account for almost half of business-to-business payments, but their share will decline to 34% by 2020 as automated clearing house payments surge from 32% of B2B payments today to 45% in three years. Those are some of the key results from a first-quarter survey by the Credit Research Foundation, …

The two biggest cryptocurrencies are experiencing growing pains that could change their character and decide their fundamental purpose in the years to come. Bitcoin, the largest digital currency at a market capitalization of $42.6 billion as of Wednesday mid-morning, remains a volatile investment at the same time its users contend …

Independent sales organization Bluefin Payment Systems said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued the company two patents for data decryption; both patents encompass Bluefin’s Decryptx platform and online P2PE Manager System. Terminal maker Ingenico Group announced it has increased by 200% over the past year its integrations with integrated software vendors, acquirers, electronic …

Discover Financial Services said it has enabled Samsung Pay on the latest Samsung Galaxy smart phones and wearables for its cards in the United States. Discover announced in 2015 that it would support Samsung Pay. Cross-border payments provider Veem, formerly known as Align Commerce, announced an integration with QuickBooks Online, used by small …

Visa Inc. is investing in Klarna, a Sweden-based payment processor that offers retail credit options for merchants, the card brand announced Tuesday. The intent, Visa says, is to develop a “future strategic partnership,” which appears to focus on Europe, though Klarna also operates in North America. Visa says the deal …

With concerns about card-not-present fraud rising, e-commerce merchants have increased their usage of 19 of 21 fraud-detection tools since 2010, some by more than 30 percentage points, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The only tool whose usage declined was 3-D Secure, which …

U.S.-based cross-border payments provider dLocal said it has added three major Chinese payment systems—WeChat Pay, AliPay, and UnionPay—to its platform. The three account for more than 70% of the Chinese market, according to dLocal. In related news, Flywire Corp., which recently expanded its cross-border payments business to include business-to business transfers, announced it has added …

Seeking to leverage its brand while boosting its presence among Web merchants, merchant acquirer Square Inc. last week introduced Square Checkout, a Square-hosted system that enables consumers to pay online while providing merchants with access to the company’s technical and business services. Consumers usually don’t know, or care, which processor …

As the nation’s automated clearing house network introduces faster payments, it’s also racking up steady increases in transaction volume. The system processed approximately 5.35 billion payments in the first quarter, notching nearly 7% growth over the first quarter of last year and rebounding smartly from a tepid 3.7% growth rate …

Apple Pay users visiting restaurants that are part of Punchh Inc.’s restaurant-loyalty service will be able to earn and redeem points when using the mobile-payment service, Punchh announced Thursday. Smashburger, Quiznos, and MOD Pizza will offer the Apple Pay/Punchh service later this year, Mountain View, Calif.-based Punchhsays. Apple Pay users …

A recent report from the U.S. Department of The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) shows a sizable increase in the number of banks and credit unions providing financial services to legal marijuana businesses. The numbers might not tell the whole story, however. FinCEN’s latest Marijuana Banking Update, for the …

In the wake of a failed effort to repeal the Durbin Amendment this spring, many banks, networks, lobbying groups, and other repeal advocates are vowing to try again, as are the Congressmen who pushed the original repeal effort. But that doesn’t mean smaller banks, at least, are totally united behind …