Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Sweden’s online-payments firm Klarna started operations in the United States only four months ago, but already it is making itself felt in the highly competitive business of serving U.S. e-commerce merchants. Nearly 20 retailers have signed up for the company’s streamlined checkout service, including big sellers Overstock.com and Shoes.com. That’s …
Read More »The In-App Channel Is Vital For Apple Pay, But Activity Overall Remains Weak
The crucial role in-app payment plays in mobile-wallet usage emerged in high relief Monday in a report showing that almost one-third of all Apple Pay credit card transactions made in the last five months by surveyed consumers occurred within a merchant app rather than in a store. Over the same …
Read More »After a Boffo Year, Will Payments Startups Reap Another Big Funding Harvest in 2016?
It may have been a so-so year for initial public offerings in payments, but 2015 was a boffo year for private financing of payments startups. And early indications are that 2016 may be just as good. Through Nov. 10, there were 235 funding deals for payments companies worldwide, with investments …
Read More »Digital Versions Will Help Propel a Strong Holiday Season for Closed-Loop Gift Cards
By John Stewart Market signals may be mixed, but on balance the 2015 holiday season will be a merry one for plastic and digital gift cards, according to Mercator Advisory Group. The Maynard, Mass.-based research firm’s annual forecast for November and December estimates loads on closed-loop U.S. gift cards will …
Read More »First Wal-Mart. Now Target? What Retailer Wallets Mean for MCX’s CurrentC App
With Target Corp. reportedly planning its own mobile wallet, the nation’s fourth-largest retailer may some time next year join the largest, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., in launching a proprietary wallet app. That could not only add to the fragmentation of the nascent digital-wallet market, it could also indicate weakening attachment to …
Read More »The PCI Security Standards Council Extends a Key Encryption Deadline by Two Years
By John Stewart Acting in response to comment from the industry, the PCI Security Standards Council has extended a key security deadline for payments processors, merchants, and banks by fully two years. These players now have until June 30, 2018, to stop using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption and instead …
Read More »Global Payments’ $4.3 Billion Heartland Deal Points up Industry Shift to Integrated Payments
When Global Payments Inc.’s chief executive, Jeffrey S. Sloan, called his counterpart at Heartland Payment Systems Inc., Robert O. Carr, a couple of months ago, he had in mind the potential for a massive acquisition in the acquiring business. But, in making that call, he also took the latest step, …
Read More »As Mobile P2P Grows, It’s Winning Adoption With a Broad Range of Age Groups
The low cost and convenience of peer-to-peer payments may be ready to cannibalize a portion of the traditional wire-transfer market, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. The report also finds that mobile P2P is important to all consumers, not just Millennials, often considered the most likely …
Read More »Bitcoin Value Rallies As the Digital Currency Closes out a Promising Year
By John Stewart The Bitcoin digital currency is surging again. Factors ranging from the collapse of the Chinese yuan to the supposed unmasking of Bitcoin’s inventor have helped push the controversial currency’s price up 15% in the past week, to a close at $415.25 on Thursday, according to data compiled …
Read More »Despite Observers’ Doubts, Wal-Mart Says Walmart Pay Won’t Weaken Ties to MCX
By John Stewart Thursday’s surprise announcement by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that the retailing titan will roll out its own mobile-payment service next year raises questions about its commitment to Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX), the mobile-wallet consortium that Wal-Mart helped launch three years ago. Starting this month, Wal-Mart will begin …
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