Monday , November 25, 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.

Eye on Fintechs: Sezzle Sizzles With 1 Million Users and Curve Opens a U.S. Office

Buy-now-pay-later specialist Sezzle Inc. said it surpassed 1 million consumers using its online payment service. Launched in 2016, Sezzle said it had reached 500,000 customers only in August 2019. At the end of the fourth quarter, the company, with corporate headquarters in Australia, said more than 10,000 merchants offer its …

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Nacha Is Building Phixius, a Trusted Conduit for Payment-Related Information

A platform to help ensure payments are made to the proper entity is preparing for a May debut. Dubbed Phixius, the Nacha-developed platform will provide a way to enable the secure sharing of payment-related information. That’s important because the platform, announced this week, could save businesses time in vetting new …

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A Hospitality POS Software Developer Becomes an ISO

The hotly competitive arena of integrated payments has prompted PointOS, a hospitality software developer, to register as an independent sales organization to gain better control over payment services it offers. The company, which serves customers, announced its ISO registration this week and calls its service PointOS Payments. “We became an …

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Eye on Cross-Border Payments: WorldRemit’s Alipay Deal, and Visa Sells an Earthport Unit

Cross-border payments specialist WorldRemit Corp. says a partnership with Alipay, a major Chinese mobile-payment service, will enable consumers to make international remittances to the Alipay mobile app. Announced Wednesday, the service harbors significant potential. Approximately 35 million Chinese citizens live abroad, and they sent home an estimated $67 billion in 2018, …

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Little Good News for Payments Companies in 2019 Data Breach Report

How will 2019 be remembered for data breaches? Not well. The number of U.S. data breaches tracked by the Identity Theft Resource Center increased to 1,473, a 17% increase from 1,257 in 2018. Drilling into the payments sector, the increase was larger, according to a newly released report from the …

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Merchants’ POS Systems Ambitions Include Omnichannel and Enhancements: Survey

As merchants consider updates to their point-of-sale systems this year, many—59%—want to add omnichannel capabilities, finds the 2020 POS/Customer Engagement Survey from Retail Consulting Partners. Conducted in late 2019, the survey collected responses more than 50 North American retailers with annual revenue ranging from $100 million to more than $10 …

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New York City Bans Cashless-Only Payments at Restaurants and Retailers

New York City became the third U.S. city to ban cashless-only payments in restaurants and stores with the passage Thursday of a measure to prohibit merchants from refusing to accept cash. San Francisco and Philadelphia have similar bans, as does the state of New Jersey.  Originally proposed by New York …

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PayPal Strikes Acceptance Deal With UnionPay

In another move solidifying its emboldened links with Chinese payments providers, PayPal Holdings Inc. announced Wednesday it will support UnionPay International in its digital wallet. Eventually, UnionPay International, whose financial-institution members have issued more than 7.5 billion cards globally, according to China Daily, will look for ways to support PayPal’s …

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Two Standards Bodies Consolidate Separate PIN-Acceptance Security Specs Into One

Payment firms that are used to choosing which PIN standard to audit against now have a much simpler choice. The Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. and the PCI Security Standards Council have created a unified PIN Security Standard, replacing separate ones each organization previously maintained. The consolidation, announced Tuesday, should …

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Eye on Integrated Payments: LawPay Gains Integration And Repay’s Gateway Is Nortridge Option

Two payments companies specializing in serving software application providers announced integrations. First, Pars Consulting Inc. completed the integration of LawPay, a payment service for law practices, for Curo365, a legal-practice software. Redmond, Wash.-based Pars said the LawPay integration with Curo365 will increase clients for both. “There were lots of payment …

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