Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Only 2 years old, the Apple iPad has already become the most popular mobile device used by consumers to make payments to online sellers, according to research released on Monday. The iPad, larger than a smart phone but smaller, thinner, and lighter than a laptop, accounted for 3.6% of all …

n n n n n Blow’s comments before the regional ISO trade group came just a day after the CFBP announced its first public enforcement action, one that targeted the issuing side of the credit card business. The CFPB issued an order requiring a bank subsidiary of the big issuer …

PayPal Inc. on Wednesday said two more retail chains are rolling out PayPal acceptance in their stores. It also said its PayPal Here mobile-acceptance product, which it introduced in March, is now generally available to merchants in the U.S. and Hong Kong, markets where some 300,000 users have signed up …

A pitched battle between two of the earliest players in the business of mobile check capture escalated on Thursday when Mitek Systems Inc. filed a legal motion accusing USAA of defamation and unfair business practices. Mitek’s action is the latest salvo in a case in which San Antonio, Texas-based USAA …

No sooner had the ink dried on a proposed settlement of a massive credit card suit than cracks began to appear in what had been an edifice of merchant solidarity. The NACS, a national trade group for convenience-store operators, on Friday said its board of directors had unanimously rejected the …

PayPal Inc. announced on Thursday it will process payments when owners of electric vehicles charge up their cars at charging stations maintained by GE Industrial Solutions, a unit of General Electric Co. In what amounts to yet another venture into the physical point of sale for PayPal, the e-commerce processing …

Worried about getting too far in debt and nearly oblivious to the ongoing debate in the banking and payments industries about the controversial Durbin Amendment, consumers in June continued to display their allegiance to debit cards, according to new figures from First Data Corp. The nation’s leading payment card processor …

The card networks, major U.S. banks, and U.S. merchants reached a $7-billion-plus settlement late on Friday, capping a seven-year battle over credit card interchange and network acceptance rules. If approved by the court, the settlement will be the largest such agreement ever in an antitrust case. Under the terms of …

With a trial date looming in September, speculation is rising that a major antitrust case challenging credit card interchange will result in new rules handing merchants wider latitude in surcharging for transactions, routing payments, and steering customers to other cards or forms of payment. Settlement talks in the case, known …

School lunches often draw fire from students, who want tastier fare, and parents and nutritionists, who want healthier meals. But for merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc., food service in schools is proving to be a profitable new payments niche. Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland on Monday said it had acquired LunchByte …

A new company run by electronic-payments veteran Bipin Shah announced on Monday it has agreed to buy two merchant processors and a payroll-processing company for a total of $179 million in cash and stock. The acquisitions are part of a strategy followed by Radnor, Pa.-based Universal Business Payment Solutions Acquisition …

The subject of vast amounts of hype, mobile payments are in fact becoming reality for many consumers. New findings from IDC Financial Insights show that 33.9% of consumers have made purchase on a mobile phone, up from only 19.3% in a similar survey last year. Mobile payments will further penetrate …

With much of the nascent mobile-payments business concentrated on consumer access via streamlined applications rather than browsers, news emerged this week that handset users are rapidly adopting apps. Indeed, usage of downloaded apps crossed the 50% mark in March and stood at 51.1% in May, according to figures released this …

Person-to-person payments continue to improve technologically and attract consumers, but providers still haven’t figured out how to make money from them, according to new findings from First Annapolis Consulting Inc. Linthicum, Md.-based First Annapolis in the second quarter tested a dozen P2P services from large banks and processors down to …

New Jersey has delayed implementation of the most onerous provisions of an unclaimed-property law affecting gift cards that caused American Express Co. and two major gift card distributors to pull out of the state this spring. The changes Gov. Chris Christie signed into law last week, however, don’t repeal the …

Google Inc.’s disclosure last week that 1 million Android-powered devices are now shipping each week with near-field communication (NFC) capability has renewed industry speculation about when NFC-based mobile payments will become a mainstream service. The shipment figure, a rare disclosure from the tightlipped Web search giant, came with weekly activation …

National Payment Card Association is out to prove the obituaries for decoupled debit were, as the saying goes, exaggerated. Not only does the company have 4,000 gas stations accepting its PIN-based debit cards, it expects a major petroleum vendor will begin accepting debit transactions through its platform on a mobile …

American Express Co. announced what it calls its “roadmap” for EMV and chip-based and mobile payments in the U.S., which means all four of the major U.S.-based payment card networks are now on record with plans to move beyond the magnetic-stripe payment card. Like the ones from MasterCard Inc. and …

Startup Revel Systems Inc. this week unveiled a device it is touting as a way for retailers using an Apple iPad for point-of-sale functions to run peripheral devices without an Ethernet router. The device, called the Revel Router, accesses the Internet via the iPad’s cellular connection. San Francisco-based Revel, which …

With EMV chip card payments coming and mobile wallets using near-field communication already here, merchant acquirers are beginning to roll out their own hardware and software to handle the new technologies. This week, the big merchant acquirer Chase Paymentech introduced its “Future Proof” point-of-sale terminal and earlier this month, Merchant …