The major payment card networks have long since come to terms with PayPal Holdings Inc., and now they’re finding ways to put that newfound friendship to use in burnishing their brands with cardholders. The latest example surfaced Monday with an announcement from Discover Financial Services that Discover cardholders can use …
Read More »Rising Competition Is Pressuring ISVs, But Also Threatens Existing ISO Relationships
In recent years, independent sales organizations and payment processors have generated plenty of lucrative business by working with software developers and marketers—businesses usually known as independent software vendors, or ISVs. But now a report indicates the software market is getting increasingly crowded, a development ISVs fear is pressuring prices. It’s …
Read More »Galileo Teams With Mastercard to Offer Instant Debit Cards Across a Wide Range of Industries
The trend toward faster payments involves several dimensions, one of which is faster card delivery to a wide array of sponsors and users who until now had little or no access to cards branded by a global network. Galileo Financial Technologies Inc. said Thursday it’s offering that capability with an …
Read More »Millions Sign Up for Mobile Payments—But How Many Stick Around Long Term?
Observers of mobile wallets have focused attention on user counts as a sign of adoption, but that leaves open the question of how many of these consumers are turning into habitual users. As it turns out, mobile-payments apps have a much harder time retaining users than do banking apps, according …
Read More »As the E-Commerce Gateway Business Heats up, Elavon Strikes a Deal for Sage Pay
U.S. payments companies looking to acquire properties in key markets like e-commerce and merchant acquiring have found a willing seller in Sage Group PLC. Early Monday, the company announced it agreed to sell its payments gateway, Sage Pay Europe Ltd., to Atlanta-based Elavon for $300 million. The deal will bring …
Read More »Could a Move in the German Parliament Break Apple’s Hammerlock on the NFC Chip?
Ever since Apple Pay debuted in 2014, Apple Inc. has kept the near-field communication chip in its devices off-limits to payment apps from other companies. But now legislation has appeared in Germany that may force the computing giant to grant access to that all-important chip, which allows Apple phones and …
Read More »How Bill Pay Could Prove To Be a Tempting Target for the New Google Checking Accounts
Now that Google Inc. is making a play for the heart of payments—the checking account—some observers see the strategy’s first fruit as likely to be a move into a massive market long controlled by banks and service providers. “It’s huge,” Krista Tedder, director of payments at Javelin Strategy & Research, …
Read More »Xoom Turns to Euronet’s Ria And Walmart to Enable Cash Transfers in the United States
As peer-to-peer payments services like Cash App, Venmo, and Zelle grow in popularity in the United States, some observers fret that underserved populations are being left behind. PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Xoom money-transfer service said Tuesday it’s attacking that issue in a collaboration with Walmart Inc. and Euronet Worldwide Inc.’s Ria remittance …
Read More »A Fast-Growing Cash App Highlights How Square Leverages Its Consumer And Merchant Sides
If Square Inc. has made one thing clear in recent months, it’s that the company is determined to tie together two worlds most payments companies see as distinct: consumers on the one hand, and merchants on the other. That strategy took another step forward last month with Square’s announcement that …
Read More »Phishing Attacks Are Booming Even as They Are Getting Harder to Detect
Fueled by such scams as business email compromise, phishing frauds are staging a dramatic comeback. The total number of attacks reached 266,387 in the third quarter, according to the latest report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a security-industry organization that tracks the crime. That’s the highest level of phishing activity …
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