Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

• The National Retail Federation announced that senior vice president and general counsel Mallory Duncan plans to retire at the end of August. Duncan joined the trade group in 1994 as general counsel and is a staunch advocate for merchants’ interests on payments issues. He plans to consult on payments and …

Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Retail Federation and one of the most outspoken advocates for merchants on payments issues, announced Thursday that he will retire at the end of August. “Whether you’re appealing to the Supreme Court, testifying before Congress or meeting at the …

• Payment technology provider VeriFone Systems Inc. said it has integrated with the AirportConnect Common Use Payment Service from SITA, the big information-technology and communications specialist serving the air-transport industry, to bring electronic payment acceptance for multiple airlines and ground handlers at airport check-in desks, kiosks and bag drops via a …

A new survey from American Express Co. finds that 37% of consumers abandoned an online purchase because they have concerns about the security of the transaction. The 2017 American Express Digital Payments Survey, released Tuesday, also finds that, despite these concerns, 47% of consumers increased their e-commerce purchasing frequency in …

• Juniper Research released a study estimating retailers globally will sustain $71 billion in card-not-present fraud over the next five years. The firm cites the U.S. move to EMV and “delays” in the arrival of the 3D Secure 2.0 protocol among the reasons for the forecasted losses. • Michael S. Blume, …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews North America remains by far the source of most data breaches investigated by Trustwave Holdings Inc., a big security-services and technology provider that operates worldwide, and the retail industry takes the lead in breaches despite the coming of EMV chip card payments to the U.S. Those are …

By John Stewart@DTPaymentNews PayPal Holdings Inc. on Tuesday cranked up the heat on a person-to-person payments market that’s already close to full boil. In a blog post on PayPal’s site, PayPal chief operating officer Bill Ready announced the company has started testing instant transfers from users’ PayPal wallets to their …

By Rick Oglesby and Brad Margol A 2015 European Parliament regulation, EU2015/751, caps the fees that a European cardholder’s bank may charge a merchant’s bank (interchange fees) at 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit cards. Also passed in 2015, and ramping up to full effect in January of …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews If Amazon.com Inc.’s $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market Inc. closes later this year as expected, it could set the stage for a radical redefinition not just of in-store payments, but of the checkout experience itself, observers say. The deal, which Amazon announced late last …

• PNC Bank N.A. said its Visa commercial cardholders can use their cards in Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, a move that PNC said makes it one of the first U.S. banks to enable mobile wallet payments for its commercial cards. • A survey from Vesta Corp. found that 62% of 155 …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Apple Inc. is sponsoring its first known offers promotion for Apple Pay users with deals available June 23-25 in two San Francisco neighborhoods. Dubbed “Lose your wallet” on Apple’s Web site, the promotion includes a percentage off the purchase or a free item with a purchase. The …

    It’s no secret that smartphones and other mobile devices are changing every aspect of our lives – not only how we connect with each other digitally, but even how we buy products offline. This creates opportunities for savvy merchants – and the payments agents that serve them. Today, consumers …

Consumers may not realize it, but their mobile phone is a gateway for criminals to take over their bank accounts. In a fast-growing scam known as SIM swapping, criminals transfer the phone number associated with a consumer’s mobile phone to the SIM card embedded in a mobile phone in their …

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a proposal adjusting certain provisions of its massive rule for prepaid accounts and asking for comment on whether the effective date for the rule should be delayed a second time. The proposed adjustments concern requirements for error resolution on unregistered accounts and wider flexibility for credit …

By Peter Lucas @DTPaymentNews With the launch of its Prime Reload rewards service, Amazon.com Inc. has positioned itself to deal a serious blow to bank card issuers’ revenues earned from interchange on Amazon.com purchases, and limit the visibility banks have into their cardholders’ behavior on the e-commerce giant’s Web site. …

Canadian merchants that accept Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. credit cards soon will be able to add a surcharge to some transactions following a settlement reached this week. The settlement, which stems from a 2011 class-action lawsuit against Visa, Mastercard, and a number of card-issuing banks alleging excessive fees, calls …

• Cavendish Asset Management, the biggest investor in mobile-banking and payments technology provider Monitise plc, said it will vote against the planned buyout of Monitise by Fiserv Inc. because the U.S. financial-institution processor’s $89 million offer is too low, Reuters reported. • Fair Issac Corp. (FICO) released the FICO Card Compromise Manager, a service …

The U.S. conversion to EMV chip card payments took a step forward Thursday when fuel-pump maker Gilbarco Veeder-Root announced what it says is the first EMV chip card transaction from a fuel dispenser. The transaction took place at a 49 Fuels gas station in Burlington, N.C., at an undisclosed time. …

The allure of subscription payments has captured the fancy of merchants and payments companies alike, but churn—the loss of a paying customer—may not only affect revenue, but hamper innovation, finds “The Art and Science of Reducing Involuntary Subscriber Churn” report released Wednesday by Digital River Inc. The report, which canvassed …

By Peter Lucas@DTPaymentNews If banks are to gain the upper hand in the hotly contested person-to-person payments market, the Zelle network, which launched earlier this week, must make good on its promise of real-time payments while allowing consumers to complete P2P payments in the most intuitive way possible, payments experts …