Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews As the new chief executive of Visa Inc., a company that is still digesting its former European franchisee, Alfred Kelly has had a busy couple of months. Since taking charge from former CEO Charles W. Scharf in December, Kelly has stopped by 12 Visa offices globally, met …

It was only a matter of time before the 120-year-old automobile became a payments device. At the 2017 CES, a consumer electronics exhibition in Las Vegas, American Honda Motor Co. Inc. early last month demonstrated an in-vehicle payments system for parking and paying for fuel. Honda held the demonstration in …

Counterfeiting is still the king of U.S. payment card fraud, according to the Federal Reserve’s recently released Payments Study 2016, but probably not for long thanks in part to the coming of EMV chip cards and the aftereffects of data breaches. Counterfeit fraud accounted for 44% of U.S. payment card …

Payments companies are taking strides toward integrating rewards for everyday purchases into mobile wallets, while making it easier to redeem those rewards at point-of-sale terminals. Last month, vending-payments specialist USA Technologies Inc. said it is integrating its MORE. loyalty platform into Apple Pay. The deal is designed to induce more …

A layman would have a hard time equating a ban on credit-card surcharges with repression of free speech, but that was the crux of the argument Jan. 10 between lawyers for merchants and the state of New York as they debated for about an hour before before the U.S. Supreme …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Payments professionals who suspect fraud is getting significantly worse were confirmed in their suspicions Wednesday with a report indicating identity fraud hit an all-time high in 2016, affecting some 15.4 million U.S. consumers. That’s up nearly 18% from 2015 and represents a one-third increase from the …

• Processor Vantiv Inc. reported its Merchant Services unit increased net revenue in the quarter ended Dec. 31 14% to $412 million from $363 million in the year-ago quarter on a 13% rise in transactions and 1% increase in net revenue per transaction. For all of 2016, Merchant Services’ net revenue jumped …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Vantiv Inc.’s

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday announced a consent order that requires Mastercard Inc. and UniRush LLC, program manager of the prepaid RushCard, to pay $10 million in restitution to cardholders and a $3 million civil fine as a result of an October 2015 processing glitch …

Mastercard Inc.’s key operating and financial metrics all grew in the fourth quarter, and president and chief executive Ajay Banga on Tuesday said he expects them to continue growing despite the political turbulence created by President Donald Trump’s new administration. In the United States, total fourth-quarter credit and debit card …

• Merchant acquirer Square Inc. announced a promotion that waives processing costs for small businesses on more than $12,000 in Apple Pay charge volume. It will give free processing on Apple Pay transactions for small-business customers that enroll this year in a promotion that includes purchase of Square’s contactless and EMV chip card reader …

Apple Inc. reported record quarterly sales Tuesday for its iPhone smart-phone models while chief executive Tim Cook briefly sketched a strong quarter and year for Apple Pay, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer company’s mobile-payments service. Speaking to analysts in an afternoon earnings call to discuss Apple’s results for the three months …

Mobile wallets have struggled in the United States to win consumer adoption and usage, but worldwide the technology is growing smartly. And even in the U.S. market, it’s expected to pick up momentum. That’s according to a report issued Monday by U.K.-based Juniper Research. The firm estimates global payments volume …

Merchant processor Vantiv Inc. has agreed to offer a mobile point-of-sale platform from CardFlight Inc. The platform, called SwipeSimple, includes an EMV reader, a mobile app for iOS and Android, and a back-office reporting portal. New York-based CardFlight says the devices will be co-branded with Vantiv’s branding and will be …

• Bloomberg reported that prepaid card services provider Green Dot Corp. is in talks to buy UniRush, a smaller competitor co-founded by Russell Simmons, the music-industry entrepreneur behind the rap label Def Jam. • In another possible deal, U.K.-based accounting and payroll software firm Sage Group plc is mulling a sale of its U.S. …

A San Francisco analytics company with access to transaction data on 3 million consumer credit and debit cards says usage of Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payment service rose steadily in 2016. TXN Solutions Inc. also says that among brick-and-mortar merchants Apple Pay usage is highest at New York City-area pharmacy …

Prepaid card specialist Green Dot Corp. has agreed to buy rival UniRush LLC in a deal valued at a minimum of $147 million and expected to close by the end of March. Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot, perhaps best known for managing Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s MoneyCard operation, said the deal will …

• Coffee giant Starbucks Corp. reported its Mobile Order and Pay feature, which allows customers to order and pay on their mobile phone and then pick up the order later without waiting, accounted for 7% of all transactions in U.S. company-operated stores in the fourth quarter, up from 3% a year earlier. …

Independent sales organization Total Merchant Services Inc. has added its Groovv POS system to its free hardware program, a move that places all of its products in the program. Prior to this week’s announcement, only point-of-sale terminals were part of the program, says Woodland Hills, Calif.-based TMS. This should make it …

Credit card numbers were involved in just under one-fifth of the 4,000-plus data breaches worldwide reported in 2016, data-security services provider Risk Based Security Inc. reported Wednesday. RBS says the latest release of its annual Data Breach QuickView found that 4,149 data breaches occurred or became publicly known in 2016, …