Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Ominous or joyous interchange news, depending on your perspective, just rolled in from Europe. The European Commission, the antitrust authority in European Union nations, on Dec. 8 accepted Visa Europe’s proposal to reduce debit card interchange by up to 60% in nine countries. The EC’s action, while having no legal …
Read More »WikiLeaks’ Defenders Go on the Attack Against Payment Firms
Supporters of WikiLeaks attacked the Visa and MasterCard Web sites on Wednesday after the bank card networks cut off donation transactions to the controversial online anti-secrecy organization that recently disclosed hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. State Department cables. The attacks, which slowed down the networks’ Web sites or made …
Read More »Google’s NFC Phone: A Good Start, But Lots of Issues Remain
As with other recent moves toward contactless payments via mobile phones, Google Inc.’s introduction of a smart phone equipped with near-field communication (NFC) technology comes shrouded with question marks, say mobile-payments players. Google’s move, which it announced on Monday in conjunction with the rollout of a new, NFC-supporting version of …
Read More »Separating Dodd-Frank’s Winners from Its Losers
The turbulent regulatory and legal atmosphere enveloping the U.S. payment card industry is blowing the industry into camps of winners, losers, and those in between. The biggest losers: Visa and MasterCard, large debit card issuers, and consumers. Winners: merchant-funded rewards networks and big merchants. Also likely to gain in the …
Read More »Sales to Gas Stations Help Fuel Revenue Gains for VeriFone
Already big inside the convenience stores at thousands of gas stations, point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc. is making headway at gas pumps. VeriFone on Thursday reported that petroleum-industry revenues grew 58% in its fourth fiscal 2010 quarter ended Oct. 31 over the year-earlier period. The strong petroleum results helped …
Read More »PayPal’s Opening Shots in a Scramble for T-Commerce
Having recently struck deals that will bring it to the physical point of sale, e-commerce processor PayPal Inc. has now branched into an entirely new market. Working with a television-technology specialist in Plano, Texas, PayPal has positioned itself to handle what promises to be a burgeoning flow of transactions from …
Read More »Why an Online PIN-Debit Provider Expects a Lift from Dodd-Frank
Most of the chatter about who will win or lose when the Federal Reserve Board releases its debit card interchange regulations and related rules mandated by the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law centers on card issuers, payment networks, and merchants. But technology vendors are likely to be affected too. One company that …
Read More »Holiday Season off to Strong Start for Online Merchants
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have ignited a promising start to the 2011 holiday spending season that appears to signal a revival in consumer spirits following a deep recession and wobbly recovery, according to a number of statistical indicators that have been released this week. Transactions on Monday at some …
Read More »Discover Starts to Roll out Its Zip Contactless Payment System
After an extended testing period, Discover Financial Services is rolling out its Discover Zip contactless payment system. The card network says an undisclosed number of cardholders began receiving contactless cards in the mail Nov. 15, while others received contactless stickers that attach to their mobile phones or other items. More …
Read More »Merchant Group Calls for Bold Action on Mobile Payments with EMV
A trade group representing more than 50 major U.S. merchants released a position paper on Monday calling on the payments industry to move resolutely toward mobile payments with near-field communication (NFC) capability and chip-and-PIN technology. The Merchant Advisory Group, based in Dallas, sent the five-page paper to card networks, major …
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