• The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index found that checks, at 90%, and cash, at 72%, continue to reign as the top payment methods accepted by small businesses. A printed check from a bill-pay service was next, at 53%, followed by credit or debit card at a point-of-sale terminal, 42%, …
Read More »Faster EMV Tech Might Leapfrog the Traditional Spec and Improve Consumer Perceptions
Card-brand efforts to improve consumers’ perceptions of EMV transaction speeds took a step ahead this week when a grocer debuted updated EMV software on its point-of-sale systems. New Seasons Markets, including its New Leaf Community Markets unit, is now using the Quick Chip and M/Chip Fast technologies from Visa Inc. …
Read More »Square Moves Toward Profitability as Its Payment Volume Booms
By Jim Daly @DTPaymentNews Square Inc. reported Wednesday that its payment volume grew 42% in the second quarter to $12.5 billion, and, while still reporting a loss, the merchant processor edged toward profitability as its adjusted revenues jumped 54%. Square, which began signing merchants in 2010, also raised its financial …
Read More »A Small-Merchant Security Program Makes Progress, But Not Without Some Grumbling
By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews A relatively new program geared at shoring up data security at small merchants is making progress toward a crucial January deadline, but not without some full-throated grumbling, if comments and questions at an industry trade show this week in Grapevine, Texas, were any indication. The program, …
Read More »Bluepoint Image Capture Firm Sold and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• International Business Machines Corp. reportedly is in early talks to acquire iPad-based point-of-sale technology provider Revel Systems Inc., according to Bloomberg. • Investment firm Battery Ventures said it reached an agreement to acquire Bluepoint Solutions Inc., a privately-owned image-capture and document-management firm, and will merge it with Alogent, a …
Read More »Digital Transactions August 2016
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Read More »Retention of Small and Mid-Sized Merchants Continues To Vex First Data
By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Most of First Data Corp.’s cylinders fired on cue in the second quarter, but its U.S. small and mid-size business customers again proved to be drag on revenue growth. In response, the giant payment processor is holding off on merchant price increases and ramping up service, its top brass …
Read More »Epson America Launches Partner program and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• FinTech Acquisition Corp. announced it has completed its acquisition of processor CardConnect LLC, which has become a wholly owned subsidiary. Renamed CardConnect Corp., the company began trading Monday on the NASDAQ under the symbol “CCN.” • Epson America Inc. launched the Envision mSelect Partner program to help mobile point-of-sale …
Read More »Making Sense of the Relentless Tech-Driven Changes in the Merchant-Acquiring Industry
It might be a cliché, but the saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same has some validity for merchant acquirers despite the rapid introduction of new technologies and the entrance of new competitors in recent years. For example, the top 10 U.S. merchant acquirers in …
Read More »Global Payments’ Heartland Merger On Track, Executives Say
The $4.3 billion merger of Global Payments Inc. and Heartland Payment Systems Inc. appears to be paying off. Atlanta-based Global Payments released its fiscal fourth-quarter and year-end results Thursday. For the year, which ended May 31, total revenue of $2.9 billion was up 4.5% from $2.8 billion in the prior year. …
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