Surcharges and discounts for cash aren’t brand-new pricing tactics, but interest in them by independent sales organizations is rising because of falling legal barriers and the potential profits. Repeated sessions about the topic were packed Thursday at the Western States Acquirers Association annual conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. The presenter was Ryan …
Read More »Global Mobile Contactless Payments To Hit $1 Trillion by 2022, Researcher Predicts
Mobile contactless payments are growing at a nearly 31% compounded annual rate and will exceed $1 trillion worldwide by 2022, according to a new forecast from 451 Research. The prediction is contained 451’s Global Unified Commerce Forecast, which estimates that total online commerce accounts for about 10% of purchases currently, …
Read More »USA Technologies’ Stock Tanks on News of Contract Investigation
Unattended payments provider USA Technologies Inc. lost a third of its value Tuesday morning on news it would delay filing its annual report while its board of directors investigates customer contracts and how business was booked. The company had until Sept. 13 to file its annual report with the Securities …
Read More »Eye on Data Breaches: British Airways Reports Hack; Survey Finds 21% of Equifax Victims Noticed ‘Unusual’ Financial Activity
Some 380,000 payment cards used by British Airways customers have been compromised in a data breach, and more than one in five consumers surveyed about last year’s massive breach at credit-reporting agency Equifax Inc. reported “unusual activity” in its wake, including new account openings. British Airways, one of Europe’s largest …
Read More »PayPal Still Reigns in Digital Wallets While Apple Pay Gains and Samsung Pay and Google Pay Diverge
PayPal remains by far the most popular digital wallet with U.S. consumers, but Apple Pay has gained the most since 2017’s third quarter, according to recent findings from technology research firm 451 Research. New York City-based 451’s Voice of the Connected Consumer survey asks consumers about their usage of 15 …
Read More »Transaction-Processor Stocks Beat the Market Once Again
Boosted by profits that mostly exceeded analysts’ expectations, payments companies in August once again beat the major stock indexes even though the markets themselves performed well, according to a new report from Barrington Research Associates Inc. Chicago-based Barrington said Wednesday that 27 publicly traded electronic-transaction processors it tracks posted a …
Read More »Eye on M&A: Elavon Buys Electronic Transaction Systems; FIS Sells Certegy Check Services
Merchant acquirer Elavon Inc. has acquired Electronic Transactions Systems Corp., an independent sales organization and business-software provider, Elavon parent company U.S. Bancorp announced Tuesday. Another payment processor, Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS), also reported Tuesday that it sold the assets of its Certegy Check Services unit to a private-equity …
Read More »True Believers Insist Blockchain And Cryptocurrencies Will Take Over the World
The panelists were not subtle in assessing the future of digital currencies and the decentralized blockchain technology behind them. “Cryptocurrencies and blockchain will take over the world, it will be a bigger impact on the world than the Internet,” said investment banker Dennis O’Neill, chief executive of Chicago-based O’Neill Capital …
Read More »U.S. EMV Merchant Locations Grew by 400,000 in 2018’s First Half, Visa Data Show
Approximately 400,000 U.S. merchant locations began accepting EMV chip cards in 2018’s first six months, according to new data from Visa Inc. In its latest report on the U.S. conversion from magnetic-stripe payment cards to the EMV standard, Visa on Wednesday said 3.1 million merchant locations accepted the new cards …
Read More »Cash Pick-Up Deal With Ria Brings PayPal’s Xoom to 60 More Countries
Xoom, the online money-transfer service that PayPal Holdings Inc. acquired in 2015, will enter 60 more countries and expand in 26 more under a deal announced Tuesday with Euronet Worldwide Inc.’s Ria money-transfer subsidiary. The pact enables Xoom payment recipients to pick up cash transfers from senders, most of whom …
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