Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
American Express Co. extended the reach of its Serve digital and prepaid card platform with a rewards program it announced on Tuesday with leading online game developer Zynga Inc. The big prepaid card program manager Green Dot Corp., meanwhile, disclosed a distribution deal with Dollar Stores Inc. and the renewal …
Read More »Late to the Wallet Wars, MasterCard Unveils a Service It Touts As Open, Flexible
Nearly a year after major U.S. rivals introduced mobile wallets, MasterCard Inc. officially entered the market on Monday with a service that aims to trump competing products by being open to a wide range of payment brands and by offering tools that can let third parties develop their own digital …
Read More »Big-Box Retailers Like Wal-Mart Remain Wary of Network EMV Plans
There’s no federal edict to replace fraud-prone magnetic-stripe credit and debit cards with the more secure EMV chip card, but the payment card networks have unveiled various plans in the past year to encourage U.S card issuers, merchant acquirers, and merchants to board the EMV train. Exactly how a U.S. …
Read More »Google Starts Selling a Wallet-Equipped Smart Phone Directly to Consumers
Google Inc. breathed a bit of new life into its struggling Google Wallet franchise on Tuesday with the announcement that it is releasing directly to the public a new Android-powered phone that features the Wallet app. The so-called unlocked device, a Nexus smart phone, will work on any carrier network …
Read More »Georgia Breaks Legal Ground With New Charter for Specialty Acquiring Banks
A little-noticed new Georgia law creates a new type of bank dedicated solely to merchant acquiring that could radically transform how the acquiring business works in the U.S. Enacted at the behest of Global Payments Inc., the big Atlanta-based merchant processor, the law enables a non-bank acquirer to own its …
Read More »Facing Tighter Bank Rules, ACH Processors Turn to Another Processor for Relief
Tougher restrictions by banks are creating a business opportunity for Global eTelecom, a Fort Walton Beach, Fla.-based processor of automated clearing house transactions. While the 14-year-old company has traditionally relied on reseller agreements with independent sales organizations for new business, it’s now also pursuing deals to handle volume for other, …
Read More »EBay Chief Lauds Progress of Mobile Payments at PayPal, Looks Ahead to 2013
EBay Inc.’s top brass made it clear on Wednesday that mobile technology is dominating strategic thinking at PayPal Inc., even though it does not yet account for a significant share of transaction volume for the eBay unit. Addressing stock analysts during eBay’s quarterly earnings call, eBay chief executive John Donahoe …
Read More »PCI Council Defends Vulnerability Rule Against Oracle Security Chief’s Attack
In the wake of an unusual public outburst by a top security officer at software giant Oracle Corp., the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council issued a statement on Thursday to Digital Transactions News defending a little-known rule that requires vendors to disclose security holes in their software. …
Read More »EBay Promotes Mobile Veteran Marcus to PayPal President As POS Thrust Gains Steam
EBay Inc. on Thursday named long-time telecommunications entrepreneur David Marcus as the new president of its PayPal Inc. e-commerce payments unit. Marcus, who as vice president of mobile at PayPal has been shaping the San Jose, Calif.-based processor’s strategic shift into physical-world payments, succeeds Scott Thompson, who left PayPal in …
Read More »Western Union Offers Walk-in Plus Online Bill Pay with New WU Pay Service
The Western Union Co. took a decisive step into digital payments and online shopping with the launch last week of the WU Pay platform. The platform allows shoppers in the U.S. to pay for online purchases from their existing bank accounts or in cash at Western Union agent locations. Customers …
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