Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

By Jim Daly New York has its new BitLicense and California is actively looking at regulations for virtual currencies, but the organization that promotes uniform state laws is working on a prospective law that would guide regulations for alternative and mobile payments. The Chicago-based Uniform Law Commission (ULC) created its Alternative …

Heeding a call among businesses for faster and cheaper payments, payments provider Payment Data Systems Inc. has released the Stream general-purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid card to make it easier for companies to send funds, like commissions or rewards, to contractors or customers. The card, which bears a MasterCard Inc. brand, …

By John Stewart While some startup transaction processors have capitalized lately on the idea of so-called free processing, at least one has now decided to backtrack on that concept. BitPay Inc., an Atlanta-based processor of Bitcoin transactions for merchants, announced Wednesday it is scrapping a plan it introduced only 14 …

The Oct. 1 onset of the EMV-inspired liability shift for fraudulent transactions represents a potential financial impact for retailers, and now with that date only days away, many of them have become eager to get their hands on EMV point-of-sale terminals. Merchants could be on the hook for fees related …

The latest version of Google Wallet tended to get lost in all the hoopla surrounding Google Inc.’s launch two weeks ago of its Android Pay mobile-payments service, but while Wallet now has more modest ambitions, it could prove to be a potent force in the rapidly growing person-to-person payments business. …

Managing the integration of EMV payment acceptance into point-of-system software can be replete with nuances unfamiliar to many developers. That’s where a product announced Tuesday by two payments companies working jointly could assist. Seattle-based independent sales organization Gravity Payments Inc. has teamed with Creditcall Ltd., a United Kingdom-based transaction gateway …

By Terry Dooley Deadline: A date or time when something must be finished: the last day, hour, or minute that something will be accepted. The word “deadline” carries with it the implication of pressure—pressure to act or face the consequences. That’s the very word being tossed around when people talk …

The three-legged stool of merchants, payments companies, and consumers necessary to enable EMV chip card acceptance may be a little wobbly in the early going if the results of a new consumer survey are any indication. Fifty-nine percent of consumers say they are not ready for EMV, finds a survey …

Payment processor First Data Corp. has acquired Spree Commerce, a provider of open-source software for 45,000 e-commerce storefronts. The addition of Bethesda, Md.-based Spree could bolster First Data as it competes with processors and tech providers for more business in the fast-growing world of online retailing. “Spree is at the …

Merchants contend with fraud all the time, but the 2015 edition of the LexisNexis True Cost of Fraud study has found that their fraud costs are tallying 1.32% of revenue in 2015, a whopping 94% increase from the 0.68% rate in 2014. All categories of merchants in the LexisNexis Risk …

Expectations of easily getting merchants ready to accept EMV credit and debit cards appear to be misaligned with the reality of the terminalization program. That’s one finding from a survey released Thursday by The Strawhecker Group, an Omaha, Neb.-based payments consultancy. To accept EMV chip cards, merchants must have compatible …

Stratos Inc., developer of the Stratos card that consolidates multiple credit and debit cards into one device consumers carry in their wallets, says Boston-based Eastern Bank will test its partner program. Card aggregators, like Stratos, operate on the premise that U.S. consumers want an easier way to manage all of …

By Jim Daly Ask owners of Apple Inc.’s new Apple Watch what they like about their high-tech wearable, and they put notifications and Apple’s health-and-fitness monitoring app at the top of the list. Coming in at No. 7 of their likes is the Apple Pay mobile-payments service, according to new …

By Kevin Woodward Consumers know their credit and debit cards are changing, they’re just not sure exactly what is happening. That’s one of the findings from a survey released by payments provider Harbortouch. In the survey of 18,000 U.S. consumers, 89.4% said they were aware of the transition from magnetic …

Americans like to say their country is No. 1. Now, according to Visa Inc., America is No. 1 in a most unlikely category: EMV chip cards. According to figures Visa released Tuesday, some 141.9 million EMV credit and debit Visa cards were in issue in the U.S. as of August, …

By John Stewart When Nikki Baird and Steve Rowen evaluated retailers’ digital gift cards this year, the thing that surprised them the most was how disjointed the shopper experience is. Card sales that worked just fine at a merchant’s desktop site just didn’t translate well to a mobile device, for …

By John Stewart With conversion rates dismally low in mobile commerce, technology players have been working to streamline transactions with tools that let shoppers buy with as few clicks as possible and while staying within an app. Late Monday, online processor Stripe Inc. joined that effort with Relay, an application …

    The dawn of October 2015 is decidedly near; the clock rapidly ticking. As the fraud liability shift approaches, many merchants will be asking their POS solutions providers what plans they have in place to support EMV®. So now the question for VARs becomes: are you ready to handle …

Leading online payments provider PayPal Holdings Inc. disclosed late Tuesday that the big department-store chain Macy’s Inc. would accept PayPal not only on its Web sites and on mobile devices but also in its stores. The announcement breathes new life into PayPal’s years-long effort to come to the physical point …

By John Stewart With Google Inc.’s Sept. 10 launch of Android Pay, competition in the mobile-payments market heated up to an even higher temperature. But in all the talk about tech companies, handset makers, and banks ushering in services like Android Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Samsung …