With a push from regulators and competitive forces, banks are stepping up their development of application programming interfaces to enhance their payment and other financial services. APIs, which provide links so that disparate software systems, such as those at a bank and a financial-technology company that wants to offer services …
Read More »Mobile Traffic Grows for Shopify and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 5/1/18
Toast, a 7-year-old provider of point-of-sale and payments software to restaurants, has launched its first POS device, a handheld that servers can use to accept payments and handle other functions. The device replaces a Samsung model the company used. Commerce platform Shopify Inc. reported transactions from mobile devices amounted to …
Read More »Fraud-Prevention Services Can Aid Merchant Retention, a Survey Finds
What impact can fraud-prevention services have on merchant retention? Apparently, quite a bit, finds the “State of Payment Processing & Fraud: 2018 Report” from Kount Inc. Kount, a Boise, Idaho-based risk-management technology provider, found that 75% of approximately 150 payment-processor respondents say offering fraud-control tools improved merchant retention. The high …
Read More »The Sobering Lesson From the Latest AFP Survey: ‘Fraudsters Are One Step Ahead’
Payments executives may abhor fraudsters, but they have to admit the scamsters and hackers are a determined lot. The percentage of organizations sustaining actual or attempted payments fraud increased in 2017 for the fourth straight year, reaching a record high 78%, according to the latest “Payments Fraud And Control Survey” …
Read More »Despite Its Sprawling Size, the ACH Has Been Racking up Impressive Growth
The nation’s automated clearing house network is on a tear. Transaction volume grew by 6.3% for the fourth quarter of 2017 and by 5.7% for the full year, according to numbers released late Tuesday by NACHA, the governing body for the ACH system. All told, the network handled $46.8 trillion …
Read More »With Same-Day ACH Fully Phased in, NACHA Plans Higher Limits and Other Enhancements
With the third and final phase of same-day automated clearing house payment processing now in effect, ACH governing body NACHA is turning its attention to improving the program through higher transaction limits, adding a later processing window, and other changes. Same-day ACH transactions currently are capped at $25,000. Herndon, Va.-based …
Read More »Why Amazon Is Talking to Banks About a ‘Checking Account’ for Its Customers
Amazon.com Inc.’s interest in launching a checking-account-like product, reported Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal, could have deep roots in its strategy both for payments in general and for Amazon Pay, the payment wallet it operates for non-Amazon sites, expert observers say. Talks between the Seattle-based retailing colossus and banks …
Read More »Financial-Industry Standards Body IFX To Combine Operations With NACHA
Automated clearing house governing body NACHA and the Interactive Financial eXchange Forum Inc. (IFX) this week announced they intend to combine their operations. Founded in 1997, the Wakefield, Mass.-based IFX Forum is an international non-profit that developed and promotes the IFX business message specification as an open, interoperable for standard …
Read More »As Players Jockey for Position, Faster Payments Will Total $650 Billion This Year
Last year, the Federal Reserve set a goal of having ubiquitous faster payments available in the United States by 2020, and now the first estimates are emerging of just how much dollar volume will flow across systems already in place and in progress. The total will come to $650 billion …
Read More »Cumberland Farms Adds Biometric Support to Its Fuel-Payment App
Convenience-store operator Cumberland Farms Inc. updated its SmartPay Check-Link mobile app with biometric authentication and the ability to enroll in the program within the app, the Westborough, Mass.-based company announced Monday. The app, which launched in 2013, gives users a 10-cent discount per gallon of gas when they use it …
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