Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• With sales of EMV payment cards to U.S. credit and debit card issuers down 55% year over year in the second quarter, card producer CPI Card Group Inc. reported that total sales fell 23% to $73.7 million. Due in part to litigation expenses, CPI booked a net loss from continuing operations of $328,000 compared with net income of $12.2 million a year earlier. CPI said the quarter’s results were in line with its expectations. The company also announced that chief financial officer David Brush would leave his post at year’s end but continue as a part-time consultant until June 30 to assure a smooth transition as CPI looks for a new CFO.
• Checkout-technology provider BlueSnap introduced a series of developer tools intended to streamline the checkout process for mobile and Web users. The tools include application programming interface integrations for PayPal, Visa Checkout, and MasterCard Inc.’s Masterpass.
• VersaPay Corp. announced R. Torre & Co., maker of the Torani-brand of flavoring syrups, will process automated clearing house payments on VersaPay’s ARC platform. ARC is an ACH process that converts checks sent to vendors’ lockboxes into electronic payments.
• Payza, an international online-payments platform, announced it has expanded availability of its Payza MasterCard reloadable prepaid card to most of its account holders. The card, which features chip-and-PIN technology, was introduced in December for a limited number of users.
• The U.S. Payments Forum (formerly the EMV Migration Forum) has updated its guide concerning minimum requirements for chip deployment.
• Credit card balances rose by $17 billion in the second quarter to $729 billion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in its latest quarterly report on household debt.
• Boku Inc. announced it is now enabling carrier billing on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Store for consumers in Italy and the United Kingdom using Windows 10. The development follows an earlier integration between Microsoft and Boku.
