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Fresh from its $85 million acquisition of Cantaloupe Systems Inc., USA Technologies Inc. reported Thursday that it added 311,000 net new connections to its network of vending machines and other unattended card-accepting merchant locations in the quarter ended Dec. 31. Approximately 270,000 of the new connections came from Cantaloupe, a …
Read More »Fraudsters’ First Love: Signature Debit Cards
Criminals target signature-based debit cards for fraud attempts far more than any other payment method, according to new findings from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Fed’s survey last summer, which garnered responses from 283 banks and credit unions across the country, found that more than 90% of …
Read More »Canada’s Interac Association and Acxsys Corp. Combine Into One Entity
In an effort to streamline operations, Interac Association, Canada’s nationwide debit network, and its corporate cousin Acxsys Corp. have reorganized into a single entity known as Interac Corp., the company announced Monday. “This is an important milestone for Interac and a critical step in our continued success as one of …
Read More »Accel’s Signature-Debit Service Counts Walmart as a Customer
The electronic funds transfer networks continue to diversify their services as competition for merchant and issuer business in debit payments intensifies. The latest example comes from processor Fiserv Inc.’s Accel network, which says Walmart Inc. is using its service for signature-based debit card transactions. Walmart typically prompts customers paying with …
Read More »Mastercard Takes $873 Million One-Time Tax Hit; Lands Cabela’s Cobranded Card
Mastercard Inc. took an $873 million, one-time charge in 2017’s fourth quarter related to the new federal tax law, and the company reported Thursday that the cobranded Cabela’s Visa card will switch to the Mastercard brand. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that President Donald Trump signed into law in …
Read More »Mobile-Capture Deposit Limits Rise for Consumers as Banks Eye Under-Penetrated Small Businesses
Banks and credit unions across the board are increasing deposit limits for mobile remote deposit capture transactions, and with the consumer remote-capture market mostly conquered, financial institutions are turning their attention to small businesses. Those are two highlights from RemoteDepositCapture.com’s 2017 study of the mobile-capture market. The Alpharetta, Ga.-based publishing …
Read More »Advocates Look to EMV Fuel Pumps And Contactless Cards for Advances in Payments Tech
The U.S. Payments Forum on Monday reported that the vast majority of large U.S. merchants now accept EMV chip cards. With the conversion to chip from the old magnetic-stripe payment technology at the point of sale now over the hump, though still far from complete, advocates are looking at fuel …
Read More »Starbucks Brews New Cards and Mulls Blockchain Technology
Investors gave Starbucks Corp. the cold shoulder Friday morning on news that despite a record $6.1 billion in quarterly revenues, growth is slowing in the United States. But the coffee giant’s payments business has several initiatives brewing, executives reported late Thursday. A leader in closed-loop prepaid cards and mobile payments …
Read More »The Beat Picks Up at Pulse as Discover’s Transaction Volume Grows
Last year was a year of revival for Discover Financial Services’ long-suffering Pulse debit network, which posted a 19% fourth-quarter increase in year-over-year dollar volume on 15% more transactions. The strong finish—$42.4 billion in volume on 1.03 billion transactions—brought Pulse’s full-year volume to $157.1 billion, up 14% from $138 billion …
Read More »Merchant Unit and a $136 Million Present From Uncle Sam Boost TSYS’s Bottom Line
Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) generated $1.1 billion in segment revenues from its Merchant Solutions unit in 2017, a 22.8% increase from $898.5 million in 2016, the Columbus, Ga.-based processor reported late Tuesday. That growth outpaced 2017’s revenue increases of 5.2% and 12.6%, respectively, in TSYS’s card-issuing and Netspend prepaid …
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