The week started out on a fusion theme when a private-equity firm said it would buy Canadian payments and financial software developer DH Corp. for C$4.8 billion ($3.6 billion) and merge it with one of its portfolio companies, United Kingdom-based Misys, a software provider for retail and corporate banking. Also …
Read More »Building a Base of Mobile Payers May Require Players To Pay
For mobile-wallet providers, card issuers, and merchants trying to attract consumers to their mobile-payment services, the way to build a base of active customers can be summarized in two words: pay up. New findings from Auriemma Consulting Group based on research with 1,505 payment card holders eligible for mobile-payments programs …
Read More »VeriFone Looks to the Future as the U.S. EMV Conversion Takes a Breather
VeriFone Systems Inc.’s North American revenues plunged 30% in the quarter ending Jan. 31 as small and mid-size businesses slowed purchases of VeriFone EMV chip card point-of-sale terminals. But Wall Street took it in stride, and company executives stressed new growth opportunities when they reviewed the leading U.S.-based terminal maker’s …
Read More »ACI Worldwide Plugs Jack Henry Into New Faster-Payments Systems
If creating faster-payment systems is like putting pieces of a puzzle together, another piece was added Wednesday when payment technology provider ACI Worldwide Inc. announced that processor Jack Henry & Associates Inc. will use ACI’s UP Immediate Payments service to connect its community-bank and credit-union clients to the new real-time …
Read More »Early Warning Readies Its Launch Campaign for Zelle That Will Emphasize Awareness, Branding
The Zelle person-to-person payments service is about to take on a public face as bank-owned parent company Early Warning Services LLC readies a multifaceted marketing campaign for rollout in the coming weeks and months. “I would say it’s a significant marketing campaign focused on awareness,” Melissa Lowry, vice president of …
Read More »Other Countries Embrace Contactless Cards, but the U.S. Still Shuns Them
When it comes to contactless electronic payment transactions, the U.S. payments industry seems to be more interested in using smart phones than plastic debit or credit cards. But other countries have gone the opposite route. In the United Kingdom, for example, spending on contactless cards reached a record £3.4 billion …
Read More »Square Feasts on Food Pick-Up With Its Caviar Expansion and OrderAhead Acquisition
In an effort to cement its ties with restaurants, Square Inc. announced Wednesday it is adding a pick-up feature to its Caviar meal-delivery service and has acquired the OrderAhead restaurant pick-up service. Both moves capitalize on the trend time-strapped consumers buying restaurant meals for consumption elsewhere, be it at home or …
Read More »Activists Pressure Shopify To Drop Breitbart News as an E-Commerce Client
E-commerce platform provider Shopify Inc. is facing pressure to cut ties with a controversial client, the Breitbart alt-right online news site. On Thursday, activist groups plan to present a petition with 140,000 signatures at Shopify’s Ottawa, Ontario, headquarters, demanding that the processor cut off Breitbart as a client. The news …
Read More »Small Merchants’ EMV Upgrade Delays Continue To Crimp Terminal Maker Ingenico
The former EMV prom that’s turned into the date from hell for some payments-industry vendors continued for point-of-sale terminal maker and e-commerce services provider Ingenico Group SA in the fourth quarter. The France-based firm that has major operations in Canada and the United States reported last week that its North …
Read More »Canadian Small Businesses To Get an Interchange Cut From Mastercard
Small merchants that belong to the 109,000-member Canadian Federation of Independent Business will get interchange reductions of 12.5% or more on Mastercard purchases beginning April 3 under a deal announced Thursday by the CFIB and Mastercard Inc. The new rates will be available to CFIB members through all Canadian merchant …
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