By John Stewart@DTPaymentNews Bitcoin is on a tear again. The cryptocurrency has breached the $700 price barrier seven times out of the last nine days, according to data from Blockchain.info, and bids fair to remain above that level Tuesday. It was trading at $709 early in the day, according to …

By Kevin Woodward @DTPaymentNews More U.S consumers are using mobile peer-to-peer payments than are using a smart phone to make a point-of-sale purchase, research firm eMarketer Inc. says in a research note. While only 19.4% of consumers made a mobile payment in a store in the preceding six months, 24.9% …

• Payment security technology provider MagTek Inc. and Payment Alliance International (PAI), an ATM independent sales organization and processor, said PAI now supports MagTek’s QwickCodes system for cardless transactions and will deploy it across its nationwide network of more than 74,000 ATMs. • Entertainment operator Live Nation Entertainment Inc. said mobile-ticket …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews The U.S. election is just 24 hours away, but if it were up to the readers of Digital Transactions News, Donald Trump would be the next President of the United States. He’d be bound for the Oval Office, however, with a very weak mandate. Republican candidate …

By Jim Daly@DTPayment News First Data Corp. said attrition in its small and mid-size North American merchant portfolio eased off in the third quarter, but chief executive Frank Bisignano cautioned that getting attrition down to acceptable levels will take more time. “Q3 saw a meaningful reduction in the annualized attrition …

• In yet another event related to payment card data security at hotels, Sentinel Hotel announced it is investigating an incident involving cards used at its front desks after receiving reports from some of its guests of unauthorized charges. • While 22% of consumers overall prefer to receive coupons through …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Card controls, a way to empower consumers to control when and where their credit and debit cards are used, are evolving. Viewed as one way to contend with the rampant data breaches fueling payment fraud, card controls are moving beyond the simple on-off switching capability of the …

• A Colorado State University management professor and a Ph.D. student in finance at the University of Utah co-wrote a blog post saying that the “legal incoherence” in federal policy regarding financial services for legal marijuana businesses is hurting an otherwise fast-growing industry that in Colorado alone generated nearly $1 …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Debit card transactions with PIN authentication have historically been seen as the most secure form of payment available, but lately some experts have had cause to wonder. In fact, while credit card fraud losses are declining, losses on PIN debit transactions for payment and at ATMs …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Add Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to the list of merchants that will accept Chase Pay transactions. JPMorgan Chase & Co., backer of the nascent Chase Pay mobile wallet, says the massive retailer will begin accepting the bank’s payment service in more than 5,000 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores, …