Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
A new data element is getting a lot of discussion in merchant-acquiring and mobile-payments circles. It’s the so-called Payment Account Reference, or PAR, and it’s meant to associate all the payment tokens linked to a single credit or debit card primary account number, or PAN. But implementing PAR could be …
Read More »Visa’s Real Square Stake
Editor’s note: Read the latest by clicking here. A spate of media reports that Visa Inc. owns nearly 10% of Square Inc. are wrong and are based on a misreading of a filing Visa made Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a person familiar with the matter …
Read More »Visa’s Stake in Square Is a Whole Lot Lower Than a Widely-Reported 10%
It was all over the financial press Friday morning that Visa Inc. owned nearly 10% of merchant processor Square Inc. But it turns out that Visa’s real stake is a tad lower—try less than 2%. The news stories, which started with a Reuters report out of India, were based on …
Read More »ETA Releases Updated Underwriting Guidelines for Acquirers and ISOs
As promised, the Electronic Transactions Association has updated its 2014 guidelines for merchant acquirers and independent sales organizations on merchant underwriting and monitoring. And more updates are likely as technology and regulators keep the pressure on merchant processors to stay ahead of risks to the payment system. “We really want …
Read More »Despite Some Fourth-Quarter Improvements, Wall Street Punishes First Data
Leading payment processor First Data Corp. late Tuesday reported modest revenue and transaction growth in 2015’s fourth quarter, as well as better pre-tax profitability and an improved balance sheet in the wake of its October initial public offering, but investors still didn’t like what they saw. The Atlanta-based company’s stock …
Read More »The PCI Council Sets Security Rules for Token Service Providers as their Role Grows
With the coming of mobile payments and their attendant security issues expanding demand for so-called token service providers, the PCI Security Standards Council has issued rules intended to keep the tokenization environment safe. The Wakefield, Mass.-based PCI Council in December quietly released a 92-page document titled, “Additional Security Requirements and …
Read More »Despite ‘EMV Cloud,’ Cardtronics Pushes Forward With Growth Plans
Look for more ATM placements, capital spending, and possible acquisitions by leading retail ATM network owner and operator Cardtronics Inc. in 2016. The growth plan mostly conforms to the long-term strategy the company has been following in recent years, according to comments by top Cardtronics executives late Thursday. Houston-based Cardtronics …
Read More »Eye on Acquirers: Charge Volumes and Processing Revenues Grow for Vantiv and Heartland
Two leading merchant acquirers, Vantiv Inc. and Heartland Payment Systems Inc., are reporting strong transaction growth in their most recent financials. Boosted in part by its first full year of owning Mercury Payment Systems, Symmes Township, Ohio-based Vantiv on Wednesday said its Merchant Services segment processed 19 billion transactions in 2015, …
Read More »The EMV-Accepting U.S. Merchant Base Hits 750,000, Visa Reports
More than 750,000 locations representing 17% of the U.S. face-to-face card-accepting merchant base are now enabled to accept EMV chip cards, Visa Inc. chief executive Charles W. Scharf reported Thursday. The EMV acceptance base is up 42% from the 529,000 locations active as of October, when the card networks’ U.S. …
Read More »Most Shoppers Indifferent to Merchant Data Breaches, Survey Finds
Consumers seem to be very forgiving of retailers who experience data breaches, according to findings from a recent survey for the Merchant Acquirers’ Committee, a trade group of payment processors. Most customers resume shopping—and using a payment card—at a breached retailer within a few months, and among those that don’t …
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