Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Six months after the U.S. payment card industry adopted EMV chip card transactions as the preferred card technology, MasterCard Inc. says 67% of U.S.-issued consumer credit cards bearing its mark have chips, and 1.2 million U.S. merchant locations now accept the card. The data comes six months after the Oct. …
Read More »First Data CEO Pay Tops $51 Million and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• Braintree launched Braintree Auth as an invitation-only service in beta. The service streamlines integration of Braintree merchants with e-commerce platforms and eases the way for new payment methods enabled by Braintree, a unit of PayPal Holdings Inc. Braintree Auth currently processes payments on e-commerce platforms Bigcommerce, WooCommerce, and 3DCart. …
Read More »After Years of Retreat, Payments Fraud Has Come Roaring Back, AFP Survey Shows
For years, the wave of fraud receded like an outgoing tide for companies that accepted electronic payments from consumers and other businesses. But last year, a tidal wave crashed on shore. Fully 73% of companies reported they had suffered actual or attempted payments fraud in 2015, up 11 percentage points …
Read More »EMVCo Rolls Out Its PAR Data Element To Reduce Security Threats to Card Numbers
EMVCo, the chip card standards body owned by the world’s largest payment card networks, on Tuesday formally updated its tokenization specification to include the new Payment Account Reference data element. The purpose of PAR is to match tokens to the underlying primary account number of a credit or debit card …
Read More »Durbin’s Debit Law Is Eyed As Part of a Sweeping Financial Regulatory Review
Not yet five years after its implementation, a controversial federal regulation governing interchange and transaction routing for debit cards has come under review as part of a process set out by a 20-year-old law called the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act. The debit card regulation, the Federal …
Read More »Cash Preference Weakens As Younger Consumers Go for Cards, Especially Debit
Industry efforts to persuade consumers to use credit and debit cards for small-ticket purchases may be paying off, at least among younger consumers, finds a survey from CreditCards.com, a card comparison site for consumers. In the survey of more than 600 U.S. adult credit card holders sampled in early March, …
Read More »Sen. Durbin Suggests That the Big Networks Have Too Much Power Over Chip Cards
U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, author of 2010’s controversial Durbin Amendment, wants to know about the inner workings of EMVCo, the chip card standards body owned by the six largest global payment card networks. A statement Thursday from the Illinois Democrat says Durbin is “seeking information on whether the deployment of …
Read More »First Data Continues Streamlining Operations With Facilities Changes
First Data Corp. recently closed one office in Florida and plans to close a bigger one in New York next year, but the company still added 1,000 employees to its worldwide head count last year. Newsday, the newspaper of Long Island, N.Y., reported Tuesday that First Data filed a report …
Read More »Discount Grocer Aldi Reverses Course and Now Accepts Credit Cards
The prominent, slightly self-effacing graphic on discount grocery-store chain Aldi Inc.’s home page says it all: “OMG! We FINALLY Accept Credit Cards!” Indeed, Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi is believed to be the last major grocery holdout in accepting general purpose credit cards, which typically cost merchants more to accept than the …
Read More »Citi’s Deal To Buy the AmEx Costco Portfolio Moves a Step Closer
The cessation of the cobranded Costco Wholesale Corp. credit card issued by American Express Co. moved another step closer with Monday’s announcement that Citigroup will buy the AmEx Costco portfolio for an unspecified sum. Citi’s acquisition of the portfolio is expected to close this summer. That’s when Citi will begin to …
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