Sunday , November 24, 2024

Kevin Woodward

Kevin's role at Digital Transactions is to write news and features stories for publication on the Web site and in the magazine. He also oversees the digital editorial aspect of the site and the Digital Transactions News daily newsletter.

With a Peak Performance in 2015, Merchant-Acquiring Stocks Look to a Sustainable 2016: Report

  Publicly-held merchant acquirers were the best-performing payments stocks of 2015, investment-advisory firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods says in its “2016 Outlook: Pay for Growth in This Environment” report released Tuesday. Among the acquirers and processors KBW tracks are PayPal Holdings Inc., Global Payments Inc., Vantiv Inc., Heartland Payment Systems …

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Retailers, Bankers on Opposite Sides as House Panel Considers Data-Security Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee on Tuesday afternoon was scheduled to consider a data-security bill that is drawing fire from merchant trade groups and consumer advocates, but which has the support of the American Bankers Association. H.R. 2205, the Data Security Act of 2015, was introduced last …

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Rising Consumer Affinity for Subscription Billing Could Boost Payments Companies

Changes in consumer shopping behavior and new ways for companies to measure how they deliver a service are providing a boost in subscription billing, especially as cloud-based services become more mainstream. “The size of the subscription-billing service market is exploding with the advent of cloud-billing solutions being offered as a …

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A Holiday Rebound: Shoppers Back on Track, First Data’s Transaction Report Says

Consumer shopping during the Thanksgiving-holiday weekend increased 9.4%, almost tripling the growth rate last year, according to card-transaction data released by First Data Corp. In 2014, the holiday-shopping weekend grew by 3.5% over 2013. The Atlanta-based processor analyzed the volume of transactions made at more than 820,000 merchant locations that …

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Luxury Items Top Online Fraudster Wish Lists, But So Do Business Services

Just like law-abiding consumers, criminals hope to score good deals during the holiday shopping season. And luxury items and business services, such as hosting plans and search engine optimization, top their lists, finds an analysis by Forter, a San Francisco-based fraud-prevention specialist. In a report released on Monday, Forter analyzed …

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Black Friday Continues As an Online Hit, But Thanksgiving Not Far Behind

Holiday shoppers took advantage of online deals on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, ringing up $2.8 billion in sales for retailers, according to research firm comScore Inc. Online sales on Thanksgiving topped $1.1 billion, a 9% increase from $1 billion in 2014. Black Friday sales of $1.7 …

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Retailers, Restaurants Outpace Other Merchant Types for Awareness of EMV And Liability

Retailers and restaurants have a higher degree of awareness about EMV and its accompanying liability shift than other merchant types, finds the Paychex Small Business Survey, released Tuesday. In the survey of more than 760 small-business owners between Oct. 14 and Oct. 27, 69% of those in retail and restaurants …

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Universal Card Provider ScramCard Pegs its Pitch on Mitigating Fraud Risk

Backers of ScramCard, a new universal card that offers consumers the ability to load multiple credit and debit cards onto one card, hope messages touting its potential security and fraud-mitigation benefits will reach welcoming ears. Like other universal cards, ScramCard enables consumers to load their payment card details onto the …

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Cinnabon Adding Revel Systems POS Tablets With EMV And Apple Pay Acceptance

Treat retailer Cinnabon is installing iPad-based point-of-sale systems made by Revel Systems Inc. in anticipation of the EMV migration. The devices also will enable Apple Pay acceptance, Revel Systems announced Wednesday. In addition to EMV and mag-stripe cards, Revel Systems devices also accept near-field communication (NFC) payments made with Apple …

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AmEx Introduces Bundled Payment Tokenization, Security, and Mobile Services

American Express Co. is now marketing a set of tokenization, security, and mobile payments services under the AmEx Enabled Digital Solutions moniker. Included in the service is the card brand and acquirer’s digital-wallet platform, near-field communication (NFC) and host card emulation technology, the American Express Token Service, and American Express …

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