Saturday , November 9, 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.

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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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, …

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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. …

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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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Green Dot Responds in Measured Tones After Fiery Investor Calls for CEO’s Firing

Prepaid card services provider Green Dot Corp. has struggled to make profits sufficiently large to keep restive shareholders at bay since it became a publicly traded company in 2010. Now one of those shareholders, Harvest Capital Strategies LLC, is calling for the ouster of company founder and chief executive Steve …

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Visa Tweaks a Deadline, but Proceeds With PCI Compliance Plan for Small Merchants

In response to pleas from merchant acquirers, Visa Inc. this month modified a deadline in its program to get small merchants into compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, a program the leading payment card network announced to acquirers in October. The change affects the usage of qualified integrators …

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Starbucks Gets a Jolt From Its Fast-Growing Mobile Offerings

Starbucks Corp. keeps adding digital caffeine to its mobile-payments and loyalty offerings built around a prepaid card. The Seattle-based coffee king on Thursday reported that 21% of its U.S. transactions were paid on the Starbucks mobile app in the quarter ended Dec. 27, up from 20% in the previous quarter …

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Consumers Quickly Embracing Mobile Apps for Purchases and Banking, Verizon Study Finds

While consumer acceptance of mobile wallets has been painfully slow for wallet developers such as Apple Inc., new survey results from the nation’s largest mobile carrier show consumers are quite willing to use mobile apps in some form to buy things. Some 23% of smart-phone owners last year used an …

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