Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
A controversial New Jersey law that claims unused gift card balances as state property after two years and requires gift card sellers to obtain buyers’ ZIP codes is taking heavy fire. If it survives a repeal effort and court challenges, however, opponents fear gift card issuers will leave the state …
Read More »Global Payments Confirms Data Breach, Extent of Damage Still Unknown
Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. confirmed late Friday afternoon that it sustained a data breach following press accounts earlier in the day of a breach variously reported as affecting 50,000 to potentially millions of payment cards. In a press release, Atlanta-based Global “announced it identified and self-reported unauthorized access into …
Read More »Groupon Deal for FeeFighters Points up Rewards Brokers’ Need for Acquiring Ties
Groupon Inc.’s acquisition of a Web site that lets processors bid for merchant contracts represents a big opportunity for the online rewards giant but also underscores the dependence of such services on the merchant-acquiring business, a researcher who follows acquiring says. In the deal, announced on Friday, Groupon bought FeeFighters, …
Read More »Processor JetPay Takes Some Flak But Keeps Flying After Direct Air Bankruptcy
n “The bankruptcy court in question agreed with our motion that the escrow account is for the consumer,” Trent Voigt, chief executive of JetPay LLC of Carrollton, Texas, told Digital Transactions News moments after a hearing ended in the case of Southern Sky Air & Tours LLC, doing business as …
Read More »Vantiv Joins the Ranks of Publicly Traded Payment Processors
Vantiv Inc. began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday with the symbol VNTV, having priced its shares late on Wednesday at $17, the mid-point of its estimated opening range. The Cincinnati-based payment processor saw its initial offering of 29.4 million shares raise just shy of $500 million. …
Read More »PayPal Announces a Merchant-Acceptance App That Goes Beyond Cards
The news leaked earlier this week, but PayPal confirmed on Thursday it has created a mobile-acceptance product to compete with the myriad such services already on the market from hardware and software companies, as well as merchant processors. Still, PayPal’s product, called PayPal Here, may stand out from the crowd …
Read More »Discover Releases an EMV Plan That Echoes Key Deadlines from Visa, MasterCard
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Read More »Citing Time Pressures, the ETA Asks Visa to Delay New Acquirer Fee
Accusing Visa Inc. of a “lack of regard” for its members, the Electronic Transactions Association merchant-acquiring trade group sent a letter to the card network March 7 asking that it delay implementation of a new fixed fee until acquirers have time to reprogram their back offices and make other adjustments. …
Read More »Eye on Mobile: Square Enhances Square Register; Isis Enlists Terminal Makers
n Square Inc. kept up the pressure on the traditional merchant-acquiring industry on Monday by introducing a souped-up version of its iPad app for brick-and-mortar merchants called Square Register with enhanced business-management functions. Meanwhile, the Isis mobile-payments venture announced it has struck deals with the major U.S. point-of-sale terminal makers …
Read More »VeriFone Isn’t Losing Sleep Over Competition From Upstart Square
n n Competition from Square? No problem, according to VeriFone Systems Inc. chief executive Douglas G. Bergeron. n “We’ve had competitors for 30 years,” Bergeron said in response to an analyst’s inquiry about how he sees the competitive risk to VeriFone, the leading U.S.-based point-of-sale terminal maker, from Square Inc., …
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