Prepaid and gift card provider Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. is further broadening its reach beyond supermarket gift card malls with its deal to offer gift card services within PayPal Inc.’s digital wallet and its pending acquisition of InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions, which offers corporate incentives and consumer promotion products. Announced Wednesday, …
Read More »AmEx Cardholders Can Use Points to Pay for Taxi Rides in New York
American Express Co. cardholders for the first time can use their rewards points at the point of sale when they pay for rides in New York City taxis that use VeriFone Systems Inc. taxi point-of-sale services, AmEx said Monday. Cardholders can use their points in more than 7,000 New …
Read More »IP Consolidator Unwired Planet Slaps Square with Suit Alleging Patent Infringement
Intellectual-property company Unwired Planet Inc. is suing Square Inc. alleging Square’s mobile-payments technologies infringe on three of its patents, Unwired Planet announced Monday. The suit asserts that mobile point-of-sale provider Square infringes on patents for wireless transactions and location-based services as used in Square Wallet, and location-based notifications as used …
Read More »Dwolla Ends Support for Virtual Currency Bitcoin
By Kevin Woodward Person-to-person and mobile payments company Dwolla Corp. is ending support for Bitcoin and other virtual currencies effective Oct. 28, Dwolla announced on Friday. Less than 0.1% of Dwolla’s merchants use virtual currencies, Des Moines, Iowa-based Dwolla says in a statement. “Dwolla has notified the few affected merchants …
Read More »Decoupled Debit Scheme Pulls Up at the VeriFone Fuel Pump
Consumers this fall will be able to use their smart phones to pay for fuel at certain gas stations that use VeriFone Systems Inc. technology and offer National Payment Card Association’s mobile-payment app, VeriFone announced Monday. Point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone says convenience store and gas station operators using its Smart …
Read More »New Technology Entrants Capture ISO and Acquirer Attention at Regional Conference
Recurring revenue from transaction-processing fees has been a staple of independent sales organizations and acquirers for decades. But amid a host of new competitors, the payment-processing industry finds itself wondering what its next steps may be. ISOs are squeezed on one side by large players, like First Data Corp. …
Read More »Retailer Beyond the Rack Signs Up for the MasterPass Online Wallet
Online retailer Beyond the Rack is among the latest retailers to accept MasterCard Inc.’s MasterPass digital wallet service on its e-commerce site, the card brand recently announced. Beyond the Rack is a members-only online retailer that sells apparel and accessories. MasterPass is a wallet platform enables mobile payments by …
Read More »TNS Partners with AJB Software To Bring Outsourced Payment Services to Large Retailers
Large merchants that work with AJB Software Design Inc. to handle their payments-technology integration have a new option to use for outsourcing their payment needs. They can use TNSPayDirect, a new service from Transaction Network Services Inc., which provides access to an AJB retail transaction switch. AJB’s retail transaction …
Read More »M-Payments Startup CardFree Scores First Merchant with Sonic Drive-In
CardFree, a mobile-wallet startup founded by payments-industry veterans with experience in mobile-payments apps, says its first merchant partner is Sonic Drive-In, a quick-serve restaurant chain with more than 3,500 locations. CardFree features a geo-location app to identify the consumer’s proximity to the merchant for marketing purposes. The company, which …
Read More »Analysts See Smooth Transition at Global Payments As Garcia Gives Way to Sloan
By Kevin Woodward The appointment on Tuesday of Jeffrey S. Sloan as the new chief executive of payment processor Global Payments Inc., succeeding long-time chief executive Paul Garcia, surprised hardly anyone. Sloan, who joined Global Payments as president in 2010, has a history with the company. Garcia, who was named …
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