Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority has accepted in principle a number of proposals Mastercard Inc. has made to dispel concerns the agency expressed earlier this month about the planned $920 million merger of Mastercard and the U.K.-based payments-technology firm VocaLink. The CMA had been concerned that the merger would hand Mastercard too much control over Britain’s LINK ATM network. Among the new proposals is one calling for VocaLink to make its connectivity technology available to a new supplier to LINK. The CMA said it has until March 15 to formally accept the proposals, though it could extend that deadline by two months.
• ACI Worldwide Inc. said the latest version of its UP Immediate Payments solution connects to all immediate (real-time) payments networks globally. In the U.S., this includes the system being built by The Clearing House and VocaLink, which is expected to go live later this year.
• Terminal maker Equinox Payments reached an agreement with consumer-ratings firm TruRating to allow point-of-sale consumer feedback at Equinox’s Luxe family of devices.
• Ethoca, a firm specializing in preventing e-commerce fraud, has established a link to FICO, in an arrangement that Ethoca says enables card issuers using FICO’s Falcon Fraud Manager to maximize recoveries of fraud losses and avoid chargebacks.
• Augeo, a provider of incentive programs, has acquired Edo Interactive, a specialist in card-linked offers. Terms were not disclosed.
• BMO Harris Bank launched three third-party digital wallets, Masterpass, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay, for “select” credit and debit card holders.
• PayPal Holdings Inc. appointed attorney Belinda Johnson to its board of directors. Johnson is chief business affairs and legal officer at Airbnb, and previously held posts at Yahoo! and Broadcast.com.
