Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
By John Stewart Ahead of an expected separation later this year from its long-time parent eBay Inc., PayPal Inc. on Wednesday reported strong growth in both its overall business and in the burgeoning mobile-payments market. Payments volume for the San Jose, Calif.-based processor climbed 24% in the first quarter compared …
Read More »Non-Bank Rivals, Lack of Account Coverage Haunt Growing Real-Time Trend
A panel of two bankers and a banking-services provider gave an upbeat appraisal Monday of industry moves toward real-time payments, but indicated financial institutions still have a long way to go to serve customer demand and meet competitive thrusts from non-bank players. “We’ve got more work to do,” said Roy …
Read More »Wearables Users More Likely to Use Digital Banking And Mobile Wallets, Research Says
Apple Inc. and American Express Co. may be catching a wave. Users of wearable technology like fitness bands and smart watches—the kind of gadgets AmEx and Apple are mixing with payments and financial services—are not only younger and wealthier than owners of smart phones and tablets, they’re also more likely …
Read More »NACHA Reports Nearly 5% Volume Growth for the ACH Network in 2014
On the heels of healthy quarterly growth, NACHA reported Thursday that the automated clearing house network handled nearly 23 billion electronic transactions in 2014, up by 1 billion payments, or nearly 5%, from 2013. Dollar volume was up more than 3%, to more than $40 trillion. These overall volume numbers …
Read More »NACHA Stats Show Nearly 5% Growth for the ACH in 2014’s Holiday Quarter
All things considered, the holidays were kind to the ACH. Transactions on the automated clearing house network grew 4.7% in the final three months of 2014 compared to the fourth quarter of 2013, while dollar volume moved by the network climbed 4.9%, according to statistics from NACHA, the governing body …
Read More »Beset by Volatility and Usage Questions, Bitcoin Attracts Record Investment
Bitcoin had a rough first quarter, leaving open questions about its ability to break into the mainstream of global payments. But that didn’t stop investment cash, which poured into startups supporting the digital currency at a record rate. That’s according to a quarterly report released Friday by Coindesk Research, which …
Read More »Facing Digital Rivals, Western Union Adds Payment Service for Skype Users
Facing increasing competition from digital money-transfer upstarts, wire-service giant Western Union Co. is making alliances to add value to its traditional money-movement product. This week, it announced a deal with Skype, the video-calling service, which allows Skype users to top up their accounts by handing over cash at Western Union …
Read More »Dwolla And BBVA Turn on a Real-Time, Tokenized Payments Service
A real-time payments system featuring tokenized transactions opened to all comers on Wednesday when Houston-based BBVA Compass Bank announced its connection with processor Dwolla Inc. is live for commercial use. “We’ve been in a live environment [with BBVA] for the last two to three weeks with friends and family but …
Read More »While EMV And Mobile Captivate the Industry, Big Retailers Express Frustrations
By John Stewart EMV chip cards and mobile payments may be two abiding passions of the payments industry these days, but major merchants are far from sold on either technology, judging by comments from a number of them Tuesday at a payments-technology conference. Most big retailers are gearing up for …
Read More »The Fed Finds Rising Mobile-Payments Adoption, But Big Hurdles Hinder Usage
The number of mobile-payments users in the United States is growing steadily, but most mobile-phone owners still find other payment methods more convenient, and the frequency of payment use with phones is still low. These are among the conclusions of a Federal Reserve consumer survey conducted in December that also …
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