Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

The surge in online shopping touched off by the pandemic has turned out to be something of a mixed blessing for smaller merchants. While it brought in a wave of new shoppers, it has also exposed a rising problem with glitchy checkouts at times of high demand, according to a …

Revenue from global embedded financial services will exceed $183 billion by 2027, up from $65 billion in 2022, according to a report from Juniper Research. It classifies embedded finance as when financial services, such as banking, insurance, or lending, are integrated into non-financial user experiences. American Express Co. released a personal card application …

By Michelle Jordan, SVP and Head of Payment Optimization The weighted average cost of payment acceptance is expected to have doubled from around 0.8% in 2009 to over 1.6% by 2025.[i] Fueled by the abundance of rewards cards, the shift to online payments, and the rise of commercial purchasing cards, …

Newtek Business Services Corp., a small-business lender and payment processor, has received approval from the Federal Reserve to become a bank-holding company and financial-holding company through its acquisition of National Bank of New York City. Newtek entered into an agreement to acquire the bank in August 2021. Approval of the …

With just days until the 2022 holiday shopping season begins in earnest, retailers may have a glimmer of hope for more sales if a new survey from Deloitte bears out. In its 2022 Black Friday-Cyber Monday Survey, consulting firm Deloitte predicts that consumers will spend on average $205 on Black …

Amazon.com Inc. said it will offer buy now, pay later capability through Nov. 28 via its BNPL partner Affirm Inc. Customers who spend $50 or more will get the option of splitting the payment into three equal monthly installments at zero-percent interest. In related news, online travel platform Expedia Group said U.S. users …

Payments giant Visa Inc. announced Alfred F. Kelly Jr., a former American Express Co. executive who joined Visa in 2016 as chief executive, will leave that role as Ryan McInerney, Visa’s current president, assumes the title Feb. 1. McInerney came to Visa in 2013 having held the chief executive of …

Looking to speed payments through the automated clearing house while reducing risk, Plaid Inc. announced late Thursday the rollout of Signal, a machine-learning risk engine. Plaid has been piloting Signal for more than a year with select customers that generate high ACH volumes. To accelerate ACH transactions and make them …

Twenty percent of consumers plan to use a buy now, pay later plan during the holiday shopping season, according to an October survey of more than 1,000 consumers by the Electronic Transactions Association and The Strawhecker Group. An additional 20% were “on the fence” about using BNPL. In related news, Vagaro, a …

Visa Inc. is leveraging its sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup to showcase several payments technologies, including contactless payments, facial recognition, and digital card issuance. Visa is deploying 5,300 contactless-enabled payment terminals at official FIFA venues and enabling taxis in Doha, Qatar, capital of the host country, to accept contactless …

As the market for real-time payments continues to develop in the United States—and as the Federal Reserve prepares for a commercial launch of its own real-time network next year—The Clearing House Payments Co. is celebrating the five-year anniversary this month for its own nationwide service. “We keep plowing forward,” Jim …

The PCI Security Standards Council released its PCI Mobile Payments on COTS standard that addresses security requirements for services that enable merchants to accept cardholder PINs or contactless payments using a smart phone or other commercial off-the-shelf mobile device.Private equity firms Centerbridge Partners L.P. and Bridgeport Partners completed the acquisition of transaction processor Computer Services Inc. for $1.6 …

Months after the introduction of Google Wallet, Alphabet Inc. announced late Tuesday it is expanding the availability of the digital wallet to 12 more countries, bringing the total number of countries where the wallet is available to 57. Users will now also be able to make the wallet available on …

Merchants in the United States that use Square’s point-of-sale technology and also accept American Express will be getting a credit card from Square in coming months that will run on AmEx’s network. The so-called Square Credit Card is said to be the first credit card the Block Inc. unit has …

Criminals’ use of language can trip up even savvy consumers, found a new report from Visa Inc. The “Fraudulese: The Language of Fraud” report found that 73% of consumers are likely to miss the requisite red flags in digital communications. The data is based on surveys of 6,000 adults in 18 countries. …

Shift4 Payments Inc. has expanded its merchant-gaming portfolio by striking a deal with the Chickasaw Nation to process payments across all of its tribal-owned casino and non-casino locations, as well as third-party venues, such as valet services or restaurants operated by third parties within Chickasaw-owned casinos. The Chickasaw nation, the …

Varo Bank early Tuesday announced it has become the first digital neobank to be admitted to the Zelle peer-to-peer payments network. The bank, a unit of the 7-year-old, San Francisco-based Varo Money Inc., said it will now offer payments via Zelle through its mobile app. “Adding Zelle to our product …

Authorized push payments fraud is expected to reach $5.25 billion in fraud losses in the United States, United Kingdom, and India by 2026, according to research from ACI Worldwide Inc. and GlobalData, an analytics firm. In 2021, U.S. authorized push payment fraud was $1.6 billion and is forecasted to be $3.1 …

American Express Co. is working with the popular social-media platform TikTok to launch the #ShopSmall Accelerator, a program intended to help small-business owners reach a new generation of shoppers on Small Business Saturday, Nov. 26, and throughout the rest of the holiday-shopping season. The deal will provide business owners with …

As clients of payment gateways turn to them for more than connectivity to multiple processors, choosing a gateway becomes more complex. The 2022 edition of The Strawhecker Group’s Payment Gateway Directory hopes to help with that, even as gateways’ role expands. Payment gateways are a key driver in the payments …