Wednesday , December 11, 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.

ID Theft Spurs Consumer Security Changes, an ITRC Survey Finds

Most victims of identity theft—53%—began using different passwords across multiple accounts, a move that could reduce their fraud exposure in the future, found a survey from the Identity Theft Resource Center. Typically, though, 59% of consumers use the same password across multiple accounts, the ITRC’s 2023 Consumer Impact Report found. …

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Sephora Is the First Client for J.P. Morgan Payments’ Tap to Pay on iPhone Service

Add Sephora, a beauty retailer, to the list of merchants adopting iPhones as payment-acceptance devices in the Tap to Pay on iPhone program. J.P. Morgan Payments says Sephora is its first such retailer to adopt the contactless-payment service, which does not require special hardware to complete a transaction. Announced Tuesday, …

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The U.K.’s Paysend Eyes U.S. P2P Payments Among Hispanics

Paysend Group is embarking on a campaign to make its name known among U.S. Hispanic peer-to-peer payments users with an advertising campaign and an offer of fee-free money transfers to Latin America, at least initially. Having opened a U.S. office in 2022, London-based Paysend hopes its advertising campaign, which debuts …

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Contactless And Mobile Wallets Are Gaining Ground Among Debit Users, a Pulse Study Finds

Consumer affinity for in-person transactions that reduce points of contact are taking hold as contactless payments made with debit cards swelled to 16% of the U.S. card-present share last year from 8% in 2021. It’s a similar story with debit cards used with mobile wallets. Their use increased from 5% …

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An Embedded Pricing Tool from TSG Aims for Fine Tuning

TSG, a payments advisory firm, released a service to help merchant acquirers and software vendors optimize pricing for merchants. Dubbed the Embedded Pricing Tool, it can help acquirers and software vendors get pricing right without over- or under-pricing merchants. Pricing data comes from the TSG database in its Acquiring Industry …

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How Dwolla Connect Is Another Step Away From Batch Processing

As account-to-account payments raise their profile in the payments arena, Dwolla Inc. has launched Dwolla Connect to enable businesses to integrate the payments into their apps and connect with existing cash-management systems. One of its chief utilities is enabling a centralized location for payment information. Announced Tuesday, Dwolla Connect provides …

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PayPal Steps Into Stablecoin Territory With Its PayPal USD

Add a stablecoin to the roster of PayPal Holdings Inc.’s financial and payments products. Announced Monday, the PayPal USD will begin rolling out to PayPal accountholders today and in coming weeks. A stablecoin is a form of cryptocurrency pegged to a reserve asset viewed as stable, such as gold or …

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Block’s Revenue Jumps 25% As It Continues Its Upmarket Push

Block Inc., corporate parent of Square and Cash App, posted $5.5 billion in second-quarter revenue, a 25% jump from $4.4 billion in the same quarter a year ago, as the payments provider pushes on with its move to add larger merchants. The midmarket segment now accounts for 40% of its …

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For ISOs And Other Acquirers, Picking a Sponsor Bank Entails Understanding Banks

Independent sales organizations can’t do much without a sponsor bank, also known as an acquiring bank, to get them access to the payment card networks. As with most business endeavors, the complexity of finding a sponsor bank has increased. It’s a challenge that attendees at the 2023 Midwest Acquirers Association …

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Eye on Text-to-Pay: DivDat Adds Text-to-Pay for Bill Payments; NMI Adds Authvia’s Text-to-Pay for its Portfolio

Two payments companies are tapping into consumers’ affinity for texting—more than 6 billion SMS text messages are sent daily, according to The Small Business Blog—with a bill-pay service and a program for merchants. First, Detroit-based Diversified Data Processing & Consulting Inc., known as DivDat, added a text-to-pay  feature to its …

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