Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Small merchants are not much more aware of—let alone compliant with—the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) than they were a year ago, according to a study released this week. Some 53% of small merchants are now at least aware of PCI, a small increase from the 47% a similar …
Read More »Square’s Latest Enhancement for Card Case Aligns with Hands-Free Trend
Square Inc. on Wednesday introduced an enhancement to its Card Case wallet application that detects when a user is near a participating store and automatically links the user’s phone to the store’s Square account. By relying on this method, which the San Francisco startup calls automatically opening a tab, the …
Read More »“Selective” Incentives Will Help Steer Debit Volume to MasterCard, Banga Says
n At a conference call with analysts to discuss the No. 2 payment card network’s third-quarter earnings, MasterCard president and chief executive Ajay Banga said his company is offering select merchants and merchant acquirers incentives to direct debit card transactions MasterCard’s way. “We are in a completely different competitive …
Read More »Aiming to Smooth In-Store Mobile Transactions, VeriFone Buys Global Bay
Extending itself further into mobile retailing and software, VeriFone Systems Inc. on Tuesday announced it has acquired 9-year-old Global Bay Media Technologies, a South Plainfield, N.J., vendor of in-store mobile solutions. Terms of the deal, which had already closed by the time of the announcement, were not disclosed. The acquisition …
Read More »Acquirers Fret That PayPal/Square Model Masks Risk, Poses Competitive Threat
n n n n n n n n n n
Read More »Citing New IRS Rules, the ETA And the ABA Ask to Delay Part of Federal Reporting Law
Two industry trade groups are asking for a delay in implementation of portions of the new federal law requiring acquirers to report merchants’ electronic payment transactions to the Internal Revenue Service, saying constant changes in the reporting form and other problems are making it difficult to meet the reporting …
Read More »In the Wake of Reporting Complaints, IRS Says It Will Delay Penalties, Withholding
Responding to complaints about problems in implementing a new federal law requiring acquirers to report merchants’ electronic payment transactions, the Internal Revenue Service announced on Wednesday it will delay penalty provisions and withholding requirements for a year, until Jan. 1, 2013. Acquirers still are required to file the new 1099-K …
Read More »Federal Agencies Turn a Watchful Eye on Third-Party Payments Providers
Already the subject of new debit card regulations, the payments industry is coming in for more scrutiny from the federal government. A Federal Trade Commission official told attendees at a merchant-acquiring conference on Thursday that the government has formed a task force to monitor third-party payment-services providers. The feds’ …
Read More »Apriva Poised to Offer a Mobile Wallet Aimed at Guarding Acquirers from ‘Outsiders’
The mobile-wallet race, which has attracted a slew of entrants in recent months, is about to get more crowded on fears that established merchant acquirers could be elbowed out of the nascent mobile-payments business. Apriva Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based provider of wireless technology for payments, will launch in November …
Read More »With Numbers up, Visa Execs Touch on Strategies to Keep Network Dominant
Confirming other findings that payment card usage is picking up in the U.S., Visa Inc.’s credit and debit card dollar volume rose 9% in the network’s fourth fiscal 2011 quarter ended Sept. 30 to $516 billion from $474 billion a year earlier. Payment transactions increased 7.3% to 10.5 billion. Visa’s …
Read More »