Thursday , November 28, 2024

Peter Lucas

A Blockchain Group Bets Its Tech Can Achieve High-Speed, High-Volume Payments Processing

A consortium of academics is betting it has the formula to create a high-performance blockchain network capable of processing payments faster and at greater scale than competing blockchain networks. The network, called Unit-e, is expected to process transactions confirmed by consensus on the blockchain in 15 seconds. If realized, the settlement …

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Deluxe Hitches Its eCheck Business to QuickBooks Online And Its 2 Million Users

Deluxe Corp. is bridging the gap between paper checks and electronic payments for small businesses by integrating its eCheck technology with Inuit Inc.’s QuickBooks accounting software. The integration is expected to automate check writing and delivery for small and midsize businesses, many of which continue to rely heavily on paper …

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Many Merchants Still Lag in Meeting a Critical PCI Data-Protection Requirement

Now that the PCI Security Standards Council’s July 1 deadline has passed for implementing newer versions of Transport Layer Security technology to protect payment data, some experts believe nearly a third of small brick-and-mortar and e-commerce merchants don’t meet the new requirements. As a result, expect merchant acquirers, processors, and …

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Venmo’s New Debit Card Is About More Than Cashing in on Interchange Fees

While the opportunity to earn interchange on transactions made on its new Venmo debit card seemingly answers the oft-asked question of how PayPal Holdings Inc. plans to leverage its free peer-to-peer payment service, the full answer runs much deeper. Interchange is only one piece of the puzzle. A much larger …

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A Safe Harbor Rejection Won’t Raise Risks for Banks Looking to Serve Cannabis Merchants

Financial institutions providing banking services to cannabis businesses in states where marijuana has been legalized are no more at risk of being punished by federal regulators than they were before Congress last week rejected legislation to provide them safe harbor. Legislators in the House of Representatives and the Senate separately …

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Consumers Increasingly Pay Billers Directly Rather Than Through Bank Sites

Payment volume through biller-direct Web sites continues to grow at the expense of bank bill-pay sites, according to new findings from Boston-based Aite Group LLC. Some 73% of the online bill payments made by consumers in 2016 went through biller-direct sites, up from 62% in 2010, according to Aite. Meanwhile, …

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Senators’ Letter on Pot Won’t Sway Card Networks, But Could Parry Sessions’s Thrust

The efforts of 18 U.S. senators to persuade the Senate Appropriations Committee to honor state laws for legal cannabis are not expected to sway Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. to drop their prohibitions on marijuana-related purchases over their networks. Earlier this week, a group spearheaded by Sens. Michael Bennett (D) …

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Canada’s Interac Eases P2P Payments And Teams With Samsung Pay for Mobile Debit

Interac, Canada’s debit network, has made it easier to digitally send money direct to another bank account through its e-Transfer service by eliminating the need for recipients to answer a security question each time a transfer is made. Answering a security question validates the recipient to whom the money is …

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With Payments Getting Faster, Banks Look to Consistent, But Flexible, Identification Routines

Financial institutions are realizing that a smooth experience is as important to consumers when identifying themselves as the authentication strategy itself, regardless of the channel consumers use to access their accounts. This finding is part of a new study from NICE Actimize, a Hoboken, N.J.-based provider of risk-management and compliance …

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Western Union and Mastercard Bring a New Twist to Money Transfers

The Western Union Co. this week positioned itself to fend off competition from peer-to-peer payment services by partnering with Mastercard Inc. to integrate Mastercard Send into its money-transfer service. The service, which is expected to be available in only the United States starting in early 2018, will allow consumers to …

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Digital Transactions