Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. says it believes fewer than 1.5 million card numbers were taken from its processing system in a data breach disclosed on Friday. Meanwhile, Visa Inc. has removed Global from its list of merchant processors compliant with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), but Global …
Read More »AmEx Stops Gift Card Sales in New Jersey As Merchants Battle Zip-Code Law
A controversial New Jersey law that claims unused gift card balances as state property after two years and requires gift card sellers to obtain buyers’ ZIP codes is taking heavy fire. If it survives a repeal effort and court challenges, however, opponents fear gift card issuers will leave the state …
Read More »Global Payments Confirms Data Breach, Extent of Damage Still Unknown
Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. confirmed late Friday afternoon that it sustained a data breach following press accounts earlier in the day of a breach variously reported as affecting 50,000 to potentially millions of payment cards. In a press release, Atlanta-based Global “announced it identified and self-reported unauthorized access into …
Read More »Online Travel Agencies Big Fraud Targets, But Losses Lower Than All Travel Sites
Online travel agencies are well-known fraud targets, and now new data from CyberSource Corp. suggest that fraudsters make more attempts against them than other sectors of the travel industry. But the data also show that the so-called OTAs’ fraud losses as a percentage of revenue are actually less than elsewhere …
Read More »EBay Promotes Mobile Veteran Marcus to PayPal President As POS Thrust Gains Steam
EBay Inc. on Thursday named long-time telecommunications entrepreneur David Marcus as the new president of its PayPal Inc. e-commerce payments unit. Marcus, who as vice president of mobile at PayPal has been shaping the San Jose, Calif.-based processor’s strategic shift into physical-world payments, succeeds Scott Thompson, who left PayPal in …
Read More »Western Union Offers Walk-in Plus Online Bill Pay with New WU Pay Service
The Western Union Co. took a decisive step into digital payments and online shopping with the launch last week of the WU Pay platform. The platform allows shoppers in the U.S. to pay for online purchases from their existing bank accounts or in cash at Western Union agent locations. Customers …
Read More »Groupon Deal for FeeFighters Points up Rewards Brokers’ Need for Acquiring Ties
Groupon Inc.’s acquisition of a Web site that lets processors bid for merchant contracts represents a big opportunity for the online rewards giant but also underscores the dependence of such services on the merchant-acquiring business, a researcher who follows acquiring says. In the deal, announced on Friday, Groupon bought FeeFighters, …
Read More »Monitise Heightens Its U.S. Mobile-Payments Profile With Pending Clairmail Deal
British mobile-banking and payments technology provider Monitise plc announced a $173 million deal Monday to buy San Rafael, Calif.-based Clairmail Inc. that will give Monitise a much bigger U.S. presence in mobile financial services and further consolidate a market nurtured by startups but feeling the increasing presence of international card …
Read More »Processor JetPay Takes Some Flak But Keeps Flying After Direct Air Bankruptcy
n “The bankruptcy court in question agreed with our motion that the escrow account is for the consumer,” Trent Voigt, chief executive of JetPay LLC of Carrollton, Texas, told Digital Transactions News moments after a hearing ended in the case of Southern Sky Air & Tours LLC, doing business as …
Read More »Vantiv Joins the Ranks of Publicly Traded Payment Processors
Vantiv Inc. began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday with the symbol VNTV, having priced its shares late on Wednesday at $17, the mid-point of its estimated opening range. The Cincinnati-based payment processor saw its initial offering of 29.4 million shares raise just shy of $500 million. …
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