Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

· Technology-testing provider UL says its cloud-based payments test suite has been approved by MasterCard Inc. It is used to test MasterCard mobile-payment applications. UL also says it now supports a new type approval program for mobile devices against an EMVCo standard. · TD Bank Merchant Solutions will offer small …

A well-crafted email message from an executive can cause employees to take swift action. That’s just what criminals hope for when they send phishing messages that purport to be from senior executives to more junior ones, says Scott Montgomery, vice president and chief technical strategist at Intel Security, the data-protection …

So far, online merchants are winning the battle against fraud, but the gains are coming at a high cost, according to the latest annual fraud study from CyberSource Corp., set for release next week with results for 2015. The progress also comes as card-not-present merchants prepare for an expected onslaught …

• The Federal Trade Commission is investigating PayPal Holdings Inc.’s popular Venmo mobile person-to-person payments service for possible “deceptive or unfair practices,” PayPal reported in a regulatory filing. PayPal said it received a so-called civil investigative demand March 28 from the FTC for documents and answers to written questions about …

    Consumers and brick-and-mortar stores across the country have been juggling the challenges of adapting to EMV technology – the microchip cards that will make card present fraud more difficult. Despite a number of setbacks, the potential benefits are worth the bother. When it comes to card-not-present (CNP) transactions, …

For Houston-based Cardtronics Inc., Europe is the new land of opportunity, so much so that the leading ATM network owner and operator plans to “redomicile” in the United Kingdom. The move is likely to cut the company’s tax rate, possibly by half, but Cardtronics says that’s just one of several …

MasterCard Inc. in the three months ending March 31 posted its biggest increase in processed transactions in two-and-a-half years, thanks to strong U.S. volumes and growth in many, if not all, other markets. The No. 2 payment card network Thursday reported its processed transactions totaled 12.6 billion in the first …

The Electronic Transactions Association, a trade group based in Washington, D.C., that represents the merchant-services industry, has opened an office in San Francisco, its first outside of the nation’s capital. The move is indicative of Silicon Valley’s growing presence within the payments industry and, specifically, within merchant services, says Jason …

The coming of same-day settlement of automated clearing house transactions to the U.S. next September has many bank and credit-union executives excited about the prospect of faster payments. But fears about more fraud are rising, too. A recent survey of approximately 60 financial institutions by New York City-based fraud-control firm …

It may have started with the likes of PayPal Holdings Inc. and Square Inc., but it isn’t stopping there. Having made their mark in merchant processing, high-tech payments firms are increasingly turning their attention to the business of offering funding to the merchants they serve. The move is bringing them …

• Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook reported at the company’s latest quarterly earnings call that the Apple Pay contactless mobile-payment service “is growing at a tremendous rate” and has more than five times the transaction volume it had a year ago, but he didn’t give numbers. The service, which is …

When it comes to mobile payments, few operators can equal PayPal Holdings Inc., a fact the company underlined on Wednesday when it reported mobile volume reached $21 billion in the first quarter, up fully 54% year-over-year. But casting a shadow over the good news was a continuing downward trend in …

With data breaches continuing to plague the payments business, and with major incidents like that of Target Corp. still fresh in the minds of payments professionals, you might think retailers would be cautious these days about their ability to ward off attackers. Not so, according to survey data released Tuesday …

Merchants attempting to create more digital experiences in their stores and restaurants because of consumer expectations are finding security of payments to be a significant challenge, finds the “Step Up The In-Person Experience” report issued by Forrester Consulting Inc. Commissioned by tablet point-of-sale maker Revel Systems, the report examines how …

• The PCI Security Standards Council said it will publish version 3.2 of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard this Thursday. • Ziosk LLC, a provider of tablets for at-table payment in restaurants, announced deals with several entertainment providers for new content on its installed base of 170,000 devices. • …

With just five days remaining, organizations developing so-called faster-payments systems are submitting proposals for evaluation by a consulting firm retained by the Federal Reserve Board’s Faster Payments Task Force. On Monday, The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC, which is building a real-time payments system with Fidelity National Information Services Inc., …

Despite 7% transaction growth, First Data Corp. on Monday reported that revenue in the company’s North American merchant-processing business declined 2% in the first quarter. In an early-morning conference call with analysts, First Data executives several times blamed attrition among small and mid-sized North American businesses, or SMBs, in its …

• Global Payments Inc.’s $4.3 billion acquisition of processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc. closed Monday, Global Payments said. The deal, announced in December, gives the combined company more than 8,500 employees and provides services to almost 2.5 million merchants around the world. • Processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) renewed …

Walmart Pay, the mobile-payments app developed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is now broadly available to consumers as part of version 6.8 of the retailing titan’s shopping app, introduced this week for Apple Inc. smart phones. The app update, available on the iTunes store, says Walmart Pay will be “available in …

• Starbucks Corp. says mobile payment represented 24% of total U.S. tender in fiscal 2016’s second quarter, and the coffee company’s Mobile Order & Pay service accounted for 4% of total transactions, or about 8 million per month, up 40% from the first quarter. • Citing a “large increase” in fraudulent …