Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) Alliance, a non-profit with more than 150 members in banking, payments, technology, and other industries, on Tuesday published its first standard for a better system of online authentication than the common but vulnerable user name and password. “Today, we celebrate an achievement that will define …
Read More »Digital River’s Stock Craters on Fears of the Company Losing Microsoft’s Online Store
Gateway and e-commerce services provider Digital River Inc. on Monday joined some other payments companies that have experienced the wrath, or panic, of investors on news that their relationship with their largest customer was threatened. Shares of Minnetonka, Minn.-based Digital River plunged 22.7%, falling $5.80 to close at $19.71, after …
Read More »Commentators Want New York’s BitLicense To Be Clear and Ensure a Level Playing Field
More than 3,700 individuals, groups, and companies have submitted comments regarding New York State’s novel proposal to regulate virtual currencies. A Digital Transactions News sampling of comments from payments organizations about the so-called “BitLicense” shows they want more clarity in definitions and exemptions from some proposed licensing requirements. New York’s …
Read More »Bitcoin Acceptance: Growing Fast, but Still a Niche for Merchant Acquirers
Once perceived as a payment method for drug dealers and shady merchants craving anonymity, the Bitcoin virtual currency is now accepted at approximately 75,000 merchants worldwide, and their numbers are growing fast, according to a new report by First Annapolis Consulting Inc. Even so, it will be a while before …
Read More »Pulse Sues ‘Long-Time Monopolist’ Visa Over Post-Durbin Debit Actions, Seeks Rival’s ‘Restructuring’
Over the past several years, during his conference calls with analysts to review Discover Financial Services’ quarterly earnings, chief executive David W. Nelms occasionally took swipes at Visa Inc.’s efforts to maintain its dominant debit card market share in the wake of the Durbin Amendment, which severely undercut Visa’s Interlink …
Read More »Remain Calm: Mobile Pay Will Boom, but It Doesn’t Warrant a Media Frenzy, Analyst Says
Mobile-payments volume will nearly triple from $51.5 billion this year to $141.7 billion in 2019, according to a new report from Forrester Research Inc. That’s pretty exciting news for payments networks, processors, banks, tech specialists, and others with a stake in the budding sector. But wait. Even with all that …
Read More »Major Prepaid Card Providers Give a Polite Response to the CFPB’s Proposed Regs
Some of the nation’s largest prepaid card companies are either giving a public thumbs up to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed regulations for prepaid card accounts or at least not saying they’re spoiling for a fight with the federal government. Steve Streit, chairman and chief executive of Pasadena, Calif.-based …
Read More »Settle Into the Easy Chair To Read the CFPB’s 870 Pages of Prepaid Card Rules
If you want to print out the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed prepaid card regulations, think again. They run 870 pages in PDF form, so you’ll need almost two reams of paper and plenty of ink. The regulations unveiled Thursday would require so-called “Know Before You Owe” disclosures and aim to …
Read More »Mocapay Seeks Wider Distribution Through a New Link With Merchant Link
By Jim Daly Mocapay Inc., one of the nation’s pioneers in mobile payments, hopes to expand its small footprint through a new distribution agreement announced this week with Merchant Link, a gateway and data-security service owned by JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s merchant-acquiring unit, Chase Paymentech. Founded in 2007, Denver-based Mocapay …
Read More »The CFPB Proposes Strong Federal Protections for Prepaid Card Accounts
By Jim Daly The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday unveiled proposed regulations for prepaid accounts that for the first time would bring to prepaid cards many of the federal protections that currently apply only to credit and debit cards. The CFPB’s plan would limit consumers’ losses when funds are …
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