Mastercard Inc. announced contactless-payment capability will go live in 20 U.S. cities “within the next few years,” starting with subway and bus systems later this year in New York City, where the company is working with transit-technology firm Cubic Transportation Systems. Bitmo, a startup that offers mobile gift cards that …
Read More »Tech-Supplier Avnet Finds Bitcoin Acceptance Is ‘Not As Hard As You Think’
Avnet Inc., a technology supplier for industries as diverse as automotive, communications, energy, and wearables, quickly has found that accepting Bitcoin via BitPay Inc. is a hit, especially with the Bitcoin mining industry. Atlanta-based BitPay announced this week that Phoenix-based Avnet uses it for Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash transactions. With …
Read More »The Future of Tokens Will Extend Beyond Payments
As more and more companies adopt tokens as a proxy for the primary account number and other sensitive payment data, the day is fast approaching when the utility of the technology will move beyond the payments box. That’s the forecast from Nate Morgan, senior director for product management at CyberSource, …
Read More »In an Active Week for Worldpay, the Big Processor Says It Will Be Amazon Pay’s First Acquirer
As if the announcement of its pending merger with Fidelity National Information Services Inc. wasn’t enough news for one week, Worldpay Inc. on Wednesday said it will acquire Amazon Pay transactions for online merchants. The news means Cincinnati-based Worldpay has become the first merchant acquirer to work with the retailing …
Read More »The Fed’s Defining Security Moment and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/20/19
The Federal Reserve announced the 22 members of its new Fraud Definitions Work Group, another component of its sweeping Payment System Improvement Project. The group, which comes from the banking and payments industries, regional Fed banks, and other organizations, will work with Fed leaders on recommendations for improving the quality …
Read More »Weeks After Fiserv’s Bid for First Data, FIS Puts up $43 Billion to Snap up Worldpay
The other shoe has dropped. Fidelity National Information Services Inc.’s $43-billion cash-and-stock deal to acquire Worldpay Inc., announced early Monday, will create a processing behemoth that will compete globally across a sweeping range of payments businesses, including merchant acquiring, e-commerce, faster payments, and core processing. And though the bosses of …
Read More »FIS And Worldpay: Merger Mania Probably Isn’t Over, Analysts Say
Close observers of the payment-processing industry predicted Fiserv Inc. would start a merger wave when it announced its $22 billion deal to acquire First Data Corp. in January. That prophecy seems to have come true with the even bigger $43 billion FIS-Worldpay merger announced Monday, and the consolidation wave probably hasn’t …
Read More »SpotOn Integrates Poynt Terminal and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/18/19
SpotOn Transact LLC said it will integrate Poynt Inc.’s smart point-of-sale terminal into its platform. SpotOn said it is the first to work with Poynt to integrate loyalty, marketing, and POS software directly into the terminal hardware. Synchrony Financial expanded the merchant categories eligible to accept its Synchrony Car Care …
Read More »Bountiful Stolen Personal Data Fuels Unrelenting Online Fraud Attacks, Forter Says
In a time when criminal access to consumer data has never been more common, merchants continue to experience pervasive and persistent fraud attempts. That’s the key takeaway from the 2019 sixth annual Fraud Attack Index from Forter Inc. released Thursday. How bad is the problem? Fraud grew in 2018 in …
Read More »Visa and Mastercard May Face U.S. Ban on Venezuela Transactions and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/15/19
The Trump administration is considering sanctions that would ban Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., and financial institutions from handling transactions in Venezuela, according to Reuters. The move would be aimed at restricting the ability of the Venezuelan government, headed by embattled president Nicolas Maduro, to access funds. IBM Corp. may be …
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