Tuesday , November 12, 2024

Jim Daly

Jim Daly joined Digital Transactions in 2006 after covering payments and merchant acquiring at Thomson Media’s Credit Card Management, Credit Card News, and CardLine publications. Before that, he was a reporter and editor at the daily Leader-Telegram in Eau Claire, Wis.

Digital Channels Help a Recovering American Express Add Cardholders

Still smarting from the loss of its big cobranded card and acceptance relationship with Costco Wholesale Corp. last June, American Express Co. managed to beat analysts’ earnings estimates in the first quarter and said it has planted the seeds for future growth. As an example, AmEx said its efforts to …

Read More »

Credit Gets the Credit for Visa’s Higher Quarterly Volumes in the U.S.

Boosted by the addition of two big U.S. credit card programs and its June 2016 acquisition of Visa Europe, just about every operational metric that matters increased by 20% or more for Visa Inc. in the quarter ending March 31. The major exception was U.S. debit, which grew in only …

Read More »

Higher Merchant and Cardholder Payment Volumes Boost U.S. Bancorp’s Revenues

U.S. Bancorp, owner of the big merchant acquirer Elavon Inc., generated 36% of its first-quarter non-interest income from payments, according to the Minneapolis-based company’s first-quarter earnings report released Wednesday. U.S. Bancorp reported $849 million of its total $2.33 billion in non-interest income came from payment sources such merchant fees, interchange …

Read More »

U.S. ATM EMV Conversion Well Past Halfway Point Halfway Between Network Liability Shifts

About 60% of the nation’s approximately 450,000 ATMs can now accept EMV chip cards, according to industry executives familiar with the years-long process of transitioning from magnetic-stripe cards. “We look at true chip transactions that are coming from terminals,” says Bruce Owens, vice president of product for the North American …

Read More »

ACH Volume Growth Again Surpasses 5% To Hit 25.6 Billion Transactions in 2016

Automated clearing house volume grew by more than 1 billion transactions in 2016, ACH network governing body NACHA reported this week. Herndon, Va.-based NACHA says traffic on the network, which connects virtually all U.S. financial institutions, hit 25.6 billion transactions, up 5.3% from 2015. That grand total includes on-us transactions. …

Read More »

Ant Financial Sets ‘The Record Straight’ About Its Fight With Euronet for MoneyGram

China-based Ant Financial Services Group, which has a deal to buy MoneyGram International Inc. for $880 million, on Wednesday fired back at Euronet Worldwide Inc. as the two firms fight for the No. 2 U.S.-based wire-transfer provider. Euronet last month submitted an unsolicited $1 billion bid for MoneyGram and has …

Read More »

OptBlue Acquirers Signed 1 Million Small Merchants for AmEx in 2016

Bank card merchant acquirers participating in American Express Co.’s OptBlue program signed 1 million small businesses for AmEx acceptance last year, an AmEx executive tells Digital Transactions News. The push came as New York City-based AmEx drives toward chief executive Kenneth I. Chenault’s goal of having AmEx’s merchant base reach …

Read More »

How the Growing Mobile-Ordering Phenomenon Is Creating Opportunities for Payment Firms

Starbucks Corp. showcased it, and now more and more restaurants are adding mobile order-ahead and payment services in an effort to generate new business—and payments firms are only too happy to help them. “Restaurants and other retail merchants are realizing that mobile order ahead is a new sales channel with …

Read More »

Bill Would Fund Trump’s Border Wall With a 2% Tax on Remittances to 42 Jurisdictions

While President Donald J. Trump has promised to build a wall along the southern U.S. border to stop illegal immigrants and have Mexico pay for it, an Alabama Congressman’s bill would provide financial support from people in the U.S. sending funds to Mexico and 41 other countries or territories. And …

Read More »

Criminals Hit More Firms in 2016 as Check, ACH Debit, and Email Fraud Attempts Rose

Nearly three-fourths of corporate treasury and finance executives say their organizations were hit by actual or attempted payment fraud in 2016, with check, automated clearing house debit, and email fraud attempts all rising, according to the Association for Financial Professionals’ ninth annual payments fraud survey. Some 74% of respondents said …

Read More »
Digital Transactions