Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews The payments industry may be undergoing an unprecedented attack by fraudsters, but funding of cybersecurity startups by top investors will drop somewhat this year compared to 2015, according to the latest data from CBInsights, a New York City-based firm that tracks venture-capital investment. Total cybersecurity funding …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews For years, payments providers have struggled to make money on person-to-person payments, and now Square Inc. is taking a swing at the problem. Starting now, Square is offering to make instant transfers of Square Cash funds into users’ bank accounts if they pony up a 1% …

• A consumer class-action lawsuit filed by the United Kingdom government’s former financial-services ombudsman against MasterCard Inc. seeks 14 billion pounds ($18.6 billion) in damages for allegedly charging excessive merchant fees between 1992 and 2008, expenses merchants passed on to consumers. In a statement, MasterCard said it “firmly” disagrees with …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews An eyebrow-raising consumer class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in the United Kingdom against MasterCard Inc. over payment card acceptance costs has parallels with U.S. card litigation, and like its American cousins, the British lawsuit faces an uncertain future. The suit seeks £14 billion ($18.6 billion) in damages, the biggest …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Tech companies like Square Inc. made their reputations by rolling out simple card readers that linked to Apple Inc.’s

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Not thoroughly knowing merchants and submerchants harbors peril for payment facilitators, and that’s one risk the Electronic Transactions Association hopes to alleviate. The ETA, a Washington-based trade group representing the merchant-acquiring industry, expects to release a set of underwriting guidelines for payment facilitators soon. According to Visa …

Consumers and merchants can count the seconds it takes to complete an EMV chip card transaction, and now payments provider Cayan LLC has quantified the total cost in hours: 116 million. That is Boston-based Cayan’s estimate of how much more time consumers will spend at the checkout completing EMV transactions …

• Apple Inc. said it is bringing its Apple Pay mobile-payments service to Japan with its new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus smart phones, and Apple Watch Series 2. Apple Pay will work with Japan’s variant of near-field communication (NFC) contactless technology known as FeliCa. • The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Mobile-payments services have plenty of issues with adoption and usage, but battery fires aren’t likely to be among them. While it’s true that a consumer can’t use a mobile wallet if he’s afraid his smart phone will ignite, payments experts say the problem that developed last …

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it is now supporting Alphabet Inc.’s Android Pay mobile-payment service. Chase, which is in the process of launching its own mobile wallet, Chase Pay, has issued more than 90 million Visa cards. • In related news, Alphabet’s Google unit said it is making Android Pay …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews The payments industry’s efforts to protect sensitive cardholder data and transactions are moves in the right direction. They’ll have to be, because solutions to the epidemic of data breaches and online fraud are going to have to come from the private sector and from consumers’ own precautions. …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Having made peace with Visa Inc. in July, PayPal Holdings Inc. announced a similar agreement Tuesday with MasterCard Inc. that further extends the online payments leader’s reach at the point of sale. But PayPal’s new accord has some differences from the one it reached with Visa, most …

• Noble House Hotels & Resorts, which earlier said it had been notified by the U.S. Secret Service about a possible card-data breach at its Ocean Key Resort & Spa, said it has found through an investigation that card data may have been compromised at 11 other hotels, restaurants, and …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews If misery loves company, then VeriFone Systems Inc. can make room for its arch-rival, France-based Ingenico Group. Ingenico reported Tuesday that a “sudden and significant” decline in U.S. EMV-related revenues, along with weak sales in Brazil, had forced it to lower its revenue and profit forecasts for …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Nearly three-quarters of mobile-phone owners have made some sort of payment with their devices, but in-app, bill, and person-to-person payments all exceed in-store payments, according to new findings from First Annapolis Consulting Inc. The Annapolis, Md.-based consulting and research firm says 74% of mobile-phone-using consumers reported in …

• E-commerce services provider Digital River Inc. released a white paper, “The Subscriptions Generation,” which offers guidance for e-commerce decision-makers and product marketers considering online subscription-based business models. • The Western Union Co. announced it is offering free money transfers from agent locations in most countries to more than 450 agent …

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By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Gift card marketers have dominated the holiday season and other gift-giving occasions in recent years, but now a card is coming to thousands of those checkout-lane racks that will let budding investors buy or give away shares of stock in a favorite company.

“Selling boxes is an unpredictable thing,” Paul Galant, chief executive of VeriFone Systems Inc., told stock analysts Thursday afternoon. Seldom has that been truer for terminal kingpin VeriFone than now, when an unexpected slowdown in EMV adoption by small and medium-size merchants has cut into the company’s sales and hurt …

• Hotel operator Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants said its point-of-sale system at several of its properties was breached earlier this year, from Feb. 16 through July 7. Kimpton began its investigation after receiving a report on July 15 of unauthorized charges after consumers used their cards at the restaurant in …