Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Two weeks after what has come to be regarded as the official start date for EMV chip cards in the United States, senior executives with the major card networks gave a largely upbeat progress report to an audience of acquiring-industry owners and managers last Thursday, while acknowledging that much work …
Read More »Banking Kingpin Chase Prepares an ‘Aggressive’ Push for Its Own Digital Wallet
Another 800-pound gorilla will soon be promoting a digital wallet, only this time it’s not a technology firm. It’s JPMorgan Chase & Co., a world leader in payment card issuance and merchant acquiring. “We’re launching our own wallet. You’ll be hearing a lot more about it,” Mike Passilla, chief executive …
Read More »CurrentC Adding More Major Merchants in Columbus, ‘Open-Loop’ Cards To Come
Within a week, four more major retailers—ExxonMobil, Sears, Shell Oil, and WalMart—will join the CurrentC pilot that started last month in Columbus, Ohio. That’s according to Brian V. Mooney, a long-time processing executive who took over in April as interim chief executive of the mobile wallet’s sponsor organization, Merchant Customer …
Read More »The Double-Edged Sword of Tokenization Helps Issuers But Also Poses a Subtle Threat
By John Stewart The rise of tokenization into a major payments business helps enable enterprises like Apple Pay and Android Pay but could also pose a threat to the financial institutions that have historically issued the majority of the cards consumers use most often. That threat lies in the fact …
Read More »Much Taken With Selfies, Millennials Also Like Mobile Capture, Survey Shows
Lately, the payments industry has been much taken with the so-called Millennial generation and how to appeal to it. Research released Wednesday indicates a key to this question is to take advantage of the one smart-phone activity the 18-to-34 age group has made famous: the selfie. The research, conducted by …
Read More »Ziosk Brings EMV And Mobile Payments to Sit-Down Eateries With Its Tabletop Tablet
By John Stewart Mobile payments have invaded many areas of consumer commerce, and now they’re about to show up in sit-down restaurants. Dallas-based Ziosk LLC said late last week it will add capability for Apple Pay and Android Pay acceptance to its custom-built Ziosk tabletop tablet starting early next year. …
Read More »How Google Wallet’s New P2P Focus Could Rescue the App From a Mediocre Legacy
The latest version of Google Wallet tended to get lost in all the hoopla surrounding Google Inc.’s launch two weeks ago of its Android Pay mobile-payments service, but while Wallet now has more modest ambitions, it could prove to be a potent force in the rapidly growing person-to-person payments business. …
Read More »With Its Spree Commerce Buy, First Data Aims To Bolster Its Online Tech Foundations
Payment processor First Data Corp. has acquired Spree Commerce, a provider of open-source software for 45,000 e-commerce storefronts. The addition of Bethesda, Md.-based Spree could bolster First Data as it competes with processors and tech providers for more business in the fast-growing world of online retailing. “Spree is at the …
Read More »As Holiday Season Nears, System Hiccups Trip Up Virtual Gift Card Offerings
By John Stewart When Nikki Baird and Steve Rowen evaluated retailers’ digital gift cards this year, the thing that surprised them the most was how disjointed the shopper experience is. Card sales that worked just fine at a merchant’s desktop site just didn’t translate well to a mobile device, for …
Read More »With Its Relay API, Stripe Enlists in Effort to Drive up Conversion Rates in M-Commerce
By John Stewart With conversion rates dismally low in mobile commerce, technology players have been working to streamline transactions with tools that let shoppers buy with as few clicks as possible and while staying within an app. Late Monday, online processor Stripe Inc. joined that effort with Relay, an application …
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