Bitcoin Cash, the Bitcoin offshoot that debuted Tuesday, already ranks as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. But by Thursday morning its value had taken a beating over the previous 24 hours. By mid-morning, Bitcoin Cash, which trades on digital-currency exchanges under the symbol BCH, was priced at just over …
Read More »Software Emerges to Ease Merger of Online And In-Store Payments Data for Merchants
As merchants and payments processors wrestle with linking e-commerce transaction data with data generated from in-store payments, vendors are starting to offer products to ease that connection. An early player is Creditcall Ltd., which on Monday introduced software that allows processors to combine data streams from a merchant’s online and …
Read More »A Slow-Moving Hard Fork Yields a High-Capacity Cryptocurrency Called Bitcoin Cash
Slowly but surely, a new version of the Bitcoin digital currency was emerging early Tuesday in what appeared to be the start of a hard fork in the Bitcoin code. The fork is expected to yield a parallel blockchain to support the new cryptocurrency, which is known as Bitcoin Cash. …
Read More »Small Merchants Gain in Card-Based Sales, Though State And City Make a Big Difference
Month by month, U.S. merchants are steadily switching on EMV capability to accept chip cards, but often overlooked is how more small merchants are simply adding credit and debit card payments, whether chip-based or not. As a result, card payment volume at small merchants has risen almost 7% over the …
Read More »PayPal Logs a Strong Quarter As Multiple Partnership Deals Start To Kick in
PayPal Holdings Inc. has changed in ways large and small since Dan Schulman took over as chief executive two years ago, but perhaps its biggest change is its willingness to embrace collaboration with financial institutions, payment networks, and others once seen as keen rivals. At least some vindication of that …
Read More »So You Want To Be a Payfac? There Are More Every Year, Despite Widespread Confusion
The number of payment facilitators is growing rapidly, with technology platforms and independent software vendors alike increasingly taking on the role. Yet confusion remains about just how a payment facilitator—or payfac, in industry parlance—differs from a conventional merchant acquirer or even from a marketplace. That confusion clouds the responsibilities payfacs …
Read More »Will Faster Payments Arrive Fast Enough to Give a Helping Hand to Mobile Payments?
Faster payments may be in the offing, according to the Federal Reserve, but that term refers to the speed of clearing and settlement. It doesn’t mean new payments methods will necessarily go mass market any more quickly. Take mobile payments, a form of digital value transfer based on smart phones …
Read More »Facing a Tight Deadline, the Faster Payments Task Force Sticks With Collaboration
Now that the Federal Reserve-sponsored Faster Payments Task Force has issued its final report calling for speedier payments everywhere in the United States by 2020, the really hard work can now begin, say some observers. Payments cleared and settled in near real time has long been a goal of many …
Read More »A Goal of Faster Payments by 2020 Highlights Fed-Sponsored Report Expected Friday
The Federal Reserve on Friday is releasing a report that calls for all American consumers and businesses to have, by 2020, the ability to receive faster payments. The ambitious goal is included in the final report of the Faster Payments Task Force, a Fed-sponsored group of more than 300 industry …
Read More »On a Partnership Tear, PayPal Unveils New Agreements, This Time With Chase And Citi
PayPal Holdings Inc. made it clear on Thursday it isn’t done striking deals with banks and other payments companies. Only days after announcing a major partnership agreement with Samsung Pay, PayPal now says it will work more closely with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the bank’s Chase Pay wallet. And …
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