Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

• Amazon.com Inc. introduced Prime Reload, a service that lets Amazon Prime members earn a 2% reward when they reload their Amazon Gift Card balance with a debit card. The reward is added to the gift card balance. Users must give Amazon their debit card, bank-account, and bank-routing numbers when they …

By Jim Daly and Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Financial-institution processor Fiserv Inc. reported Tuesday that it plans to buy United Kingdom-based Monitise plc, a faded star of the early mobile-banking and payments era that still has some valuable technology, for £70 million ($89 million) in cash. And HalCash North America, which goes …

• Processors Bora Payment Systems, Bottomline Technologies, CSI globalVCard, MineralTree, and Priority Commercial Payments have become the first companies to receive approval from Visa Inc.’s Visa Ready for Business Solutions program, which helps technology companies integrate with Visa’s business-to-business payments services. • In related news, Visa announced it will be equipping the stadiums …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews The Republican lawmakers who pushed a bill through the House of Representatives last week to radically reform the Dodd-Frank Act did so after abandoning a provision that would have repealed the Act’s Durbin Amendment. But they made it clear in floor debate on Thursday that they …

• The Zelle person-to-person payments network announced its service will go live in the mobile-banking apps of more than 30 financial institutions beginning this week and continuing over the next 12 months. The coverage will include more than 86 million mobile-banking consumers, Zelle said, adding that more than 51 million transactions totaling more …

By O.B. Rawls IV Pivot. Transform. Expand. In today’s business landscape, especially in and around payments, flexibility and agility are key. Businesses must be prepared to evolve, regardless of their size, longevity, or core service and product offerings. But, for any of us who have been in business for a …

By Dave Yohe Selecting the right partner to process payments is essential for organizations taking payments directly from consumers. While it might be tempting to choose the provider offering the lowest rate, the short-term gains from saving a little money can risk longer term business revenue. In the following paragraphs …

• While House Republicans have stripped from the Financial Choice Act a provision that would have repealed the Durbin Amendment, the effort to get rid of the law’s debit-interchange caps and routing rules is still alive. As the House voted to pass the Act, a trio of Congressmen spoke in the House on Thursday …

VeriFone Systems Inc. is best known for its point-of-sale payment terminals, but the company is growing its cloud- and software-based payment products and services. VeriFone also has made a name for itself in payment and media services for taxicabs, but that business is now on the block, company officials announced …

Payment card networks have for years eyed the broad market for small-business payments, which are still largely executed with paper checks. On Thursday, Mastercard Inc. and payables-automation company AvidXchange Inc. said they will attack that paper mountain with The Mastercard B2B Hub, which will be distributed to small- and mid-size …

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is giving customers another reason both to take its credit cards and use its Walmart Pay mobile wallet by enabling new cardholders to use their credit accounts immediately upon approval via Walmart Pay rather than having to wait for a plastic card to come in the mail. …

Consumers have a new way to get, and pay for, clean clothes with the debut of Washlava. As announced this week, Washlava offers consumers a smart-phone app they can use to reserve washers and dryers, and then pay for that use. The service, another indicator of the increasing incidence of …

• Merchant processor Payment Data Systems Inc. extended the expiration of its non-binding letter of intent to buy independent sales organization Singular Payments LLC to enable Payment Data to finish its due diligence and Singular to conclude its audit; both companies agreed to the extension, Payment Data said. Terms of the stock and …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Payment technology provider VeriFone Systems Inc. reported Thursday that it plans to divest its line of products for taxicab payments and media services, and will take a minority interest in a joint venture that will own its current business in China. News of those developments came as …

With demand for tokenized payment transactions anticipated to explode in the coming years with the growth of connected devices through the Internet of Things as well as mobile and online payments, Visa Inc. reported Wednesday that it has signed 13 new companies to participate in its token service provider program. …

• Tablet-based point-of-sale provider Revel Systems launched Revel University, an online training service for merchants using its technology. • Payments provider BlueSnap Inc. said merchants using its Powered Buy Platform now can accept Apple Pay transactions. • Nineteen percent of consumers used person-to-person payments through a financial institution in the past 30 days in a …

As the U.S. payments system collectively ambles toward real-time payments, proponents will have to ensure its benefits outweigh those of existing expedited payments options. That’s one recommendation from the “Justifying Real-Time Payments in the United States” report released Tuesday by Maynard, Mass.-based Mercator Advisory Group Inc. The report examines the …

• Groundwork, a payments service for school sports, launched its service to let parents use bank accounts or cards to make payments for team expenses. Teams pay a fee of 2% plus 30 cents, with an additional charge for card payments, with all payment communication with parents managed by the Groundwork …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Chipmaker Gemalto N.V. and risk-management firm ThreatMetrix Inc. announced that they are jointly providing online authentication technology to banks, payment-service providers, payment networks, and financial startups. Through a single vendor relationship, the companies’ customers can get access to ThreatMetrix’s Digital Identity Network and Amsterdam-based Gemalto’s various authentication …