Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

• Square Inc. introduced Scheduled Deposit, a service aimed at larger merchants, allowing them to set up regular daily deposits with accelerated access to funds. The service differs from Instant Deposit, a service Square introduced a year ago, in that deposits are automated and so don’t require manual entry by …

Every business, including merchant processors and independent sales organizations, wants to protect its trade secrets, and a new federal law gives them stronger tools to do that than available before. But the law also could expose ISOs to damages should they unwittingly hire sales representatives who use somebody else’s stolen …

Apple Inc. is notoriously tightlipped about how its Apple Pay mobile-payments service is doing, and the occasion of the computing giant’s quarterly earnings call late Tuesday was no exception. Still, while Apple chief executive Tim Cook said little to satisfy widespread curiosity about the wallet’s adoption and usage among consumers, …

The U.S. migration to the EMV chip card standard continues to pay off for point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico Group as the company reported a 14% increase in its North America revenue for the first six months of 2016. France-based Ingenico, in its earnings results released Tuesday, said it recorded 148 …

• Venmo, the peer-to-peer payment service from PayPal Holdings Inc., said all Venmo users now can use the service to make in-app purchases at participating merchants. Announced earlier this year, the in-app payment is available with 11 merchants. • Wireless transaction gateway Apriva said it has completed EMV certification for …

Payments-service provider WePay Inc. has expanded into the United Kingdom, a move that could make it easier for its clients to offer services internationally, WePay announced Tuesday. WePay’s client list includes organizations such as GoFundMe, Meetup, Care.com, Fresh Books, and Constant Contact. Organizations like these rely on crowdfunding payments. WePay …

The United States remains one of the world’s last bastions of the paper check, a situation a startup called Checkbook Inc. sees as a massive opportunity. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company has been working for the last two years on a system that it says allows businesses and individuals to use …

• Q2 Holdings Inc., a vendor of virtual-banking solutions to regional and community financial institutions, announced its plan to begin supporting the origination of same-day automated clearing house transactions on Sept. 23, the day the first phase of a three-phase introduction of same-day ACH is set to begin, as determined …

Visa Inc.’s disdain for the automated clearing house as a competing payments network has been a given for years, but never did it come into focus more than it did last week when the giant card network announced its wide-ranging agreement with PayPal Holdings Inc. The deal smoothed over a …

• Processor Vantiv Inc. launched the One Network Experience service for software developers. Dubbed O.N.E., the service offers a suite of integration tools, personalized help, and access to an online developer community. • Meta Financial Group Inc. said Meta Payment Systems, a division of MetaBank, a major prepaid card issuer, …

The United States may have been late to the EMV party, but U.S. credit and debit card issuers pushing out EMV chip cards have helped make the country the number-one market for EMV plastic, according to the latest figures from Visa Inc. As of June 30, Visa chip cards totaled …

• MasterCard Inc. is mulling an application to become a licensed payment service provider in China, a massive payments market dominated by state-owned China UnionPay, according to Reuters. • agreement with Visa Inc. that includes promotion of Visa cards and a new point-of-sale thrust for PayPal. Visa was trading at …

Few observers are surprised big banks like Capital One Financial Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Wells Fargo & Co. are getting into the mobile-wallet market, but what about smaller financial institutions like credit unions and community banks? While some might figure the small players will fall into the arms …

Confirming months of speculation, MasterCard Inc. announced Thursday that it has a definitive deal to acquire VocaLink Holdings Ltd., operator of the United Kingdom’s automated clearing house and faster-payments systems, for £700 million, or approximately $920 million, in cash. London-based VocaLink operates BACS, the U.K.’s ACH network, as well as the …

Visa Inc.’s combined U.S. credit and debit card purchase volume grew nearly 10% in the quarter ending June 30, but the payment network’s net income plunged 76% mainly because of its costs to acquire Visa Europe. PayPal Holdings Inc., meanwhile, saw its volumes and bottom line increase in the second …

For years, PayPal Holdings Inc. has struggled to bring its popular online payment product to the physical point of sale, and now a deal announced Thursday with Visa Inc. may help the company finally realize that ambition. The sweeping, multiyear agreement could also represent a thaw in what have often …

• American Express Co. reported $2 billion in net income for the second quarter, including a $1.1 billion pre-tax gain from the sale of its Costco Wholesale Corp. cobranded portfolio to Citigroup Inc., which is now issuing a cobranded

• American Express Co. reported $2 billion in net income for the second quarter, including a $1.1 billion pre-tax gain from the sale of its Costco Wholesale Corp. cobranded portfolio to Citigroup Inc., which is now issuing a cobranded Costco Visa credit card. AmEx’s U.S. card-billed business grew 2% year …

Dollar volume on Discover Financial Services’ Pulse electronic funds transfer network declined 9% in the second quarter, but that was an improvement from the first quarter’s 15% plunge and the bottom is in sight, Discover said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the impact of grocery stores’ reluctance to accept credit cards for …

A majority of Americans—62%—believe credit and debit cards and other electronic payments will replace cash in their lifetimes, finds a recent Gallup Inc. poll. But that doesn’t mean cash will disappear any time soon, experts say. Of the more than 1,000 consumers surveyed, only 11% said it is very unlikely and …