Competitive Strategies

Blackhawk Network Inc., a major player in merchant-branded prepaid cards, just gained an even bigger foothold in that market with its $175-million, all-cash acquisition of CashStar Inc., a 10-year-old firm specializing in digital gift cards. Announced Wednesday morning the dealbrings to Pleasanton, Calif.-based Blackhawk a platform enabling mrchants to market …

There wasn’t a Regular Joe in the room, but that didn’t stop a panel of payments professionals Tuesday from probing the consumer psyche to discern why mobile wallets aren’t more popular. As a percentage of point-of-sale transactions, most experts agree that the major general-purpose mobile wallets—Apple Pay, Android Pay, and …

Digiliti Money Group Inc., a provider of mobile remote deposit capture services for banks, has rejected Urban FT Inc.’s offer to save the company from potential bankruptcy, Urban FT announced Tuesday. Earlier in August, Digiliti said was considering “strategic options” that included a sale of the company or a Chapter …

In its latest flirtation with plastic credit cards, online payments leader PayPal Holdings Inc. unveiled its PayPal Cashback Mastercard, a no-annual-fee card issued by Synchrony Bank that gives PayPal account holders 2% cash back on online and in-store purchases wherever Mastercard is accepted. Rewards, on which there are no limits or expiration …

Consumers have a new option when choosing a fitness device that’s capable of making a contactless payment. Fitbit Inc., a San Francisco-based maker of fitness trackers, announced its Ionic smart watch Monday that includes Fitbit Pay, the company’s first foray into contactless payments. Fitbit Pay, which will be available when …

Target Corp. has integrated its popular Cartwheel couponing app into its main mobile app in preparation for introducing mobile-payment functionality based on quick-response codes, TechCrunch reports, though Target’s deadline for introducing payments on the app is “in flux”and may slip into early next year, according to the online news service. Golden …

Young adults are famous for their enthusiasm for new technologies, and that perception appears to be confirmed by a new study that compared adoption of in-app payments by various age groups. The recently released “2017 U.S. Mobile App Report” from Internet metrics firm comScore Inc. found that 23% of adult …

Fitbit introduced its first smart watch, the Ionic, which features contactless-payment capability. Over the coming months users can add tokenized American Express Co. cards as well as Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. credit and debit cards from certain banks around the world, including Bank of America, Capital One, HSBC, and U.S. Bank in the United States, …

So far, most observers would agree same-day ACH credit processing, introduced nearly a year ago on the nation’s automated clearing house network, has been a success. Users appear to be satisfied with the service, and risk appears to be under control, observers say, despite the shorter windows for fraud detection. …

Independent sales organization BluePay Processing LLC acquired Security Card Services, a merchant-services provider for community and regional banks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Canadian mobile-payments provider Dream Payments has expanded a dealer program whereby wireless and electronics distributors sell the company’s mobile point-of-sale terminal in-store and online. Currently, more than 100 retailers …