Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
When Acculynk Inc. introduced its Payzur person-to-person payments service two years ago, it saw it as a way of leveraging the company’s virtual PIN-pad technology along with PIN-debit networks to enable faster, guaranteed payments between individuals. n Last month, MasterCard laid down a gauntlet with its MasterCard Send, a back-end …
Read More »Shazam Builds an Answer to Non-Bank P2P Services To Keep Banks ‘In the Game’
Now that companies like Dwolla Inc., Facebook Inc., Microsoft Inc., and Square Inc. are making headlines with actual or expected services for a booming person-to-person payments market, financial institutions are scrambling to come up with solutions for their customers. One popular option is to leverage the automated clearing house network, …
Read More »Bitcoin Users Match Stereotype, But Are Wealthier, Adopt Later, Than Thought
By John Stewart The digital currency Bitcoin has attracted plenty of headlines, and has even gained enough of a foothold economically to prompt regulation, with the state of New York introducing the first BitLicense last week. But while the Bitcoin concept may be spreading its wings, the Bitcoin user base …
Read More »ACH Network Volume Climbs 5 percent in First Quarter As ‘Native Electronic’ Items Sizzle
By John Stewart As participants in the 40-year-old automated clearing house network get ready to implement same-day clearing capability, network growth continues to percolate, according to the latest numbers from NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based rules-setting organization for the ACH. Transactions totaled 4.72 billion in the first quarter, an increase of …
Read More »Declaring ‘No More Transaction Fees,’ Long-Time Fee Critic Dwolla Erases 25-Cent Levy
By John Stewart Dwolla Inc. announced Thursday morning it is eliminating its 25-cent transaction fee, effective immediately, on all transactions types. The fee, which has applied to transaction values exceeding $10, is typically paid by the receiver of the money. Des Moines, Iowa-based Dwolla processes person-to-person payments as well as …
Read More »MasterPass and Visa Checkout Announcements Highlight Digital Progress for Visa, MasterCard
By John Stewart Wednesday’s announcement by MasterCard Inc. that its MasterPass digital-payments service has signed up home-furnishings and décor e-retailer Wayfair, along with several Wayfair properties and mobile apps, threw into relief the progress the two giant general-purpose card networks are making in e-commerce and in-app payments. Once the province …
Read More »With New Digital Program, Visa Drops Token Fees, Offers Issuers Single Connection to All Services
With its Visa Digital Enablement Program, announced last week on the same day Google Inc. unveiled Android Pay, Visa Inc. has introduced application programming interfaces for card-issuing institutions to link to potentially thousands of digital-payments services with a single integration and without separate business agreements for each. Visa also hopes …
Read More »Android Pay Vs. Apple Pay: Google Has Advantages, But Business Deals Will Win Battle
With Google Inc.’s announcement of Android Pay Thursday, the first major direct rival to Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay came into focus. While other Apple Pay competitors are already in the market or soon will be—handset giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and the retailer-controlled Merchant Customer Exchange LLC are expected to …
Read More »Federal Court Orders Defendants in Newtek Case To Pay $1.7 Million Fine to FTC
Already found liable for its role in a telemarketing scheme that defrauded consumers, Universal Processing Services of Wisconsin LLC, doing business as Newtek Merchant Solutions, now will have to pay its share of a $1.7 million fine, a U.S. District Court judge ruled last week. The Federal Trade Commission in …
Read More »Superstar Names Add Luster for Xapo And Bitcoin—But Will It Matter in the Long Run?
By John Stewart Few tactics lend instant credibility like adding heavy-hitter names to a company’s board. On Wednesday, the 5-year-old Bitcoin digital currency, and at least one startup offering Bitcoin wallets, gained a few notches on the credibility index when Xapo GmbH said Dee Hock, John Reed, and Lawrence Summers …
Read More »