Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Chip-on-chip transaction volume continues to rise as the United States payments industry nears the one-year mark since the Oct. 1, 2015, liability shift, totaling 554.8 million in July, a 26% increase from 440.1 million in May, Visa Inc. announced Tuesday. Since November, Visa’s chip-on-chip transactions have more …

It’s back-to-school time, and that means it’s also time for college-age students and their parents to pay tuition charges. Most of the largest private, public, and community colleges accept credit cards for these charges, but a growing majority of these institutions also assess hefty so-called convenience fees to cardholders, according …

• Paytronix Systems Inc., a provider of loyalty solutions to restaurants and retailers, announced it has added a mobile pay-at-table capability for eateries that includes the ability to redeem rewards. • In related news, terminal maker Ingenico Group teamed with middleware vendor Datacap Systems to install a pay-at-table system based …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Retailers considering or starting a digital gift card program may do well to study the programs offered by Sephora USA Inc., Starbucks Corp., The Home Depot Inc., Dunkin’ Donuts, and Amazon.com Inc. Their digital gift card programs ranked at the top of a roster of 100 retailers …

• Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. said it will provide a Bluetooth reader capable of EMV and contactless mobile payments to Mary Kay Cosmetics Ltd. consultants in Canada. The reader works with Apple and Android smart phones and tablets. • Global payments platform Payza has integrated Canada’s Interac debit network, …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Mobile payments continue to garner merchant interest as more retailers are accepting mobile wallets, research shows. Meanwhile, drug-store chain Walgreens is making its loyalty program available to users of Android Pay. Thirty-four percent of small businesses accept mobile payments like Apple Pay and Android Pay, finds the …

• Guardian Analytics, a fraud-risk technology vendor, introduced what it says is the industry’s first real-time service to detect fraud in same-day automated clearing house transactions. Same-day ACH is scheduled to begin processing Sept. 23 with ACH credits, leaving some experts concerned that originating and receiving institutions will have less …

By John Stewart@DTPaymentNews As the automated clearing house network gets set to start a process that will over time speed up credit and debit transactions to

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews The Third Party Payment Processors Association is stepping in to lend support to Operation Choke Point, a federal government initiative targeting high-risk merchants via their payments providers. The

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Web- and mobile-based banking and payment services still have large room for growth, although online bill payment seems to have hit an adoption ceiling, according to a new survey of banks’ usage of software-based services for consumers. Chicago-based investment firm First Analysis Securities Corp. interviewed executives from …

• Apparel retailer Eddie Bauer LLC said payment cards used at its more than 350 U.S. and Canadian stores from Jan. 2 to July 17 may have been compromised by malware placed on its point-of-sale systems, KrebsOnSecurity.com reported. The malware has been removed; Eddie Bauer said the “intrusion was part …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews When it comes to faster payments, most of the U.S. payments industry’s focus lately has been on the glamorous option of real-time settlement, but sentiment is beginning to emerge that says same-day payments may just be fast enough. Those who make that argument point out that …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews In the quest to position their credit cards as the preferred payment method in mobile wallets, issuers may want to target consumers in the right demographic group who have preferences that match what the card offers, if the newly released “J.D. Power 2016 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study” is …

• Fast-food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A Inc. says it will begin accepting Apple Pay and Android Pay Friday at the point of sale inside its stores and in drive-through lanes. Chick-fil-A announced in February it would accept Apple Pay along with its own Quick Response bar code-based mobile-payment service. • Wal-Mart …

JPMorgan Chase Co.’s Chase Pay mobile wallet, probably the most ambitious bank-operated U.S. mobile-payments service, on Wednesday announced it has signed up Phillips 66 Co., which sells gasoline under the Phillips 66, Conoco, and 76 brands, and will accept Chase Pay at its pumps and in its stores. No date …

• KeyBank announced it is supporting the Masterpass digital wallet from MasterCard Inc., which recently revamped Masterpass to stress in-store payments. • Wargaming, an online-games producer, has deployed the ReD Shield anti-fraud system from ACI Worldwide throughout Europe and now plans to deploy it globally. • WesBanco Bank Inc. will instantly issue …

A streamlined approval for contactless mobile-payment devices announced Wednesday by chip card standards body EMVCo could help mobile-payments boosters realize their elusive dream that the coming of chip cards to the U.S. also will lift smart-phone-based payments. The new approval process is meant to confirm that mobile devices enabled for …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews UnionPay International’s QuickPass mobile-payments service made its North American debut with acceptance initiated in Canada, the company, a unit of China UnionPay, announced Tuesday. Consumers can use their UnionPay QuickPass cards, equipped with a contactless chip, or a card loaded into a mobile wallet, at contactless payment …

• Prepaid card program manager Green Dot Corp. has expanded its Instant Pay disbursement program with on-demand car-hailing service Uber to enable real-time payment of driver pay to almost any Discover, MasterCard, or Visa debit card, using MasterCard Inc.’s MasterCard Send service. Up to now, Instant Pay driver disbursements were …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Acquirers that service merchants that still use dial-up point-of-sale terminals have a new option for connecting these no-longer-mainstream devices to processors with the launch of a new product from Transaction Network Services Inc. Announced Tuesday, the service from Reston, Va.-based TNS provides acquirers with one connection to …