Friday , November 15, 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.

Appellate Court’s Ruling Against AmEx Hands a Tool to Merchants—But Will They Use It?

Now that a federal appeals court has refused to stay a lower court’s ruling, merchants are free to induce customers to use cards other than those of American Express Co. while the appeals court hears AmEx’s argument that the lower court erred. That means merchants, at least for now, have …

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Interest in Tap-And-Pay Payments Is Not as Strong as Awareness, a New Poll Says

Contactless payments made by tapping a smart phone against a point-of-sale terminal are increasing, according to a Harris Poll survey released Thursday. The survey of more than 2,200 U.S. adults found that the proportion of the general population who either experienced or witnessed a contactless smart-phone payment increased from 17% …

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As EMV Deadline Nears, Chase Ups the Education Ante for Small Merchants

With no exemptions for small merchants from the Oct. 1 liability shift for EMV transactions, efforts to educate them are well under way, with even the largest of banks instructing them on what EMV means for their businesses. “It’s more of an industry message,” says Deanna Karhuniemi, vice president of …

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Mobile Commerce on Smart Phones Accounts for 18% of Online Orders, Demandware Reports

U.S. consumers shopping online in the first quarter of 2015 used smart phones to place 18% of all online orders. That’s according to the Demandware Shopping Index. Demandware Inc. is a Burlington, Mass.-based e-commerce platform. The index found that smart phones, too, accounted for 38% of the overall Web traffic …

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How Targeting Criminals’ Sky-High ROI Can Help Thwart Online Fraud

Criminals targeting payment card data have a very hefty incentive, suggests the Trustwave 2015 Global Security Report. How much of an incentive? The return on investment in one example is 1,425%. Released Tuesday, the report quantifies the return on investment for a common type of online fraud, suggesting strategies to …

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As Debit Issuing Lags, Don’t Expect Debit and Credit EMV Parity Any Time Soon

Consumers this fall will begin to dip a lot of EMV credit cards into EMV-compatible point-of-sale terminals, but not so many EMV debit cards. That’s the assessment from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. in its “Prediction for the U.S. Migration to EMV Debit Cards” report released last week. By Oct. 1, …

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Eye on Tablets: Revel Systems Makes Connection, and Vend Receives Apple OK

Two iPad-based point-of-sale system providers have made announcements that, in one instance, provide another connectivity option, and in the other, puts the spotlight on the company. Revel Systems has released a wired Internet option for its iPad-based point-of-sale product, enabling the WiFi-only device to have another connectivity option. The Revel …

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JetPay And Rezzcard Team up to Tap Affordable-Housing Rent With a Prepaid Card

Rezzcard, a provider of payments services for tenants in affordable housing, has teamed with processor JetPay Corp. to offer a Visa-branded prepaid card, called the MAC card, as well as a mobile app, to tenants living in public, Section 8, tax-credit-subsidized, and workforce-housing developments. The Rezzcard app enables users to …

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TSYS And Pax Look To Simplify EMV Compliance Within Merchants’ POS Systems

Migrating point-of-sale systems to the EMV chip card standard is as much a herculean task as swapping out countertop POS terminals. Now processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) and POS-terminal maker Pax Technology Inc. say they have a product that can make the task easier for POS systems. The product, …

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Payments Executives See Mobile Wallets as Disruptive, but Also as Opportunities

Carrying out business as usual is becoming harder to do as the payments business tries to adapt to new technologies. Asked at a recent San Francisco conference about what are the most disruptive trends in payments, 40% of industry professionals and alternative-finance executives polled cited the proliferation of mobile-wallet use …

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