Competitive Strategies

Human-initiated cybercrime attacks in the United States and Canada decreased 6% in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, finds the biannual Cybercrime Report from LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Even automated bot attacks dipped—by 0.3%—in the period. But, as with all things related to online fraud, …

Payments provider Payroc Intermediate Holdings LLC has acquired technology provider Blackline Partners LLC, which does business as eConduit. Blackline provides a Web-based API by which software companies can enable clients to accept EMV payments.Visa Canada launched Click to Pay in that country. Click to Pay is based on the EMV Secure Remote Commerce standard for …

Stimulus-check fraud is on the rise, says Advanced Fraud Solutions, a High Point, N.C.-based provider of fraud-mitigation tools. Of 1 million checks screened by AFS, 41,000 have been identified as fraudulent, the company says. Legitimate checks were issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury starting in March as part …

With consumer demand for personalized digital experiences growing, NCR Corp. announced Monday it is integrating Kasisto Inc.’s KAI digital experience platform in its digital-banking platform. Kasisto’s KAI platform uses automated conversational banking technology to interact with consumers through digital channels in a human-like way. This allows banks to deploy intelligent, …

Momentum behind a standard for the exchange of consumers’ financial data between fintech apps and banks gained strength Monday with an announcement that a trade group supporting the standard has added 39 members since April. The group, the Reston, Va.-based Financial Data Exchange LLC, now claims a membership of 140 firms, …

Cash ATM withdrawals were down 14.6% for the week ending Sept. 6 among credit unions serviced by PSCU. The credit union service organization’s weekly transaction trends report found that while down, the rate is better than the 21.8% average decrease for the past four weeks.Co-Op Financial Services said an alliance with debit …

Unattended-payments specialist USA Technologies Inc. said it added more than 3,600 new customers in its fiscal year ending June 30, bringing its customer count to approximately 23,000. It ended its 2019 fiscal year with 19,400 customers. The addition comes as Malvern, Pa.-based USAT finds itself with new management, a reorganized …

American Express Co. named Colleen Taylor president of U.S. merchant services. Taylor has been executive vice president of merchant services at Wells Fargo & Co. and had worked at Mastercard Inc.The financial newspaper Barron’s is reporting that publicly held Puerto Rico-based payments processor Evertec has hired Goldman Sachs to advise on plans for a sale …

The chargeback process was introduced more than four decades ago as a consumer-protection mechanism. It was meant to inspire consumer confidence in payment cards, which were still a novel concept at the time. Fast-forward to today, though, and these forced payment reversals have evolved into a significant problem for online …

PayPal Holdings Inc. and Visa Inc. are adding cross-border payments to an agreement to route payments made through PayPal’s Instant Transfer Service through the Visa Direct platform. The expanded agreement will allow consumers and small businesses to send or receive money to or from a Visa card account in real-time …