Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Pharmacy giant Walgreen's Co., which a month ago announced it would stop accepting American Express cards effective today, has reversed itself, announcing it will continue taking AmEx cards after reaching a new multi-year deal with the card company. Terms of the new arrangement were not released. “We were able to …
Read More »PayPal Says It Will Stop Blocking of Payments Backed by Credit Cards
PayPal Inc. has announced it will no longer allow sellers that have bank accounts registered with the San Jose, Calif.-based processor to block payments funded by credit cards, effective next month. Sellers' ability to refuse such payments has been part of the company's “Payment Receiving Preferences” policy for so-called premier …
Read More »Discover Seals Its Pulse Acquisition Following Pulse Members’ OK
Discover Financial Services Inc. and Pulse EFT Association announced today that Discover's $311-million acquisition of the Houston-based electronic funds transfer network, announced in November, has closed. The deal's completion follows approval of the merger by Pulse's member banks, and, according to Discover, more than doubles the company's U.S. card base …
Read More »GTCR Will Keep Its Grip on VeriFone Even After the Proposed IPO
VeriFone Inc. will continue to be controlled by GTCR Golder Rauner LLC, a Chicago-based private equity firm, and its current chief executive, Douglas Bergeron, will continue to be a major shareholder even after the San Jose, Calif.-based point of sale terminal maker completes its proposed initial public offering of stock. …
Read More »WaMu’s Move to MasterCard Underlines Intense Card Competition
Washington Mutual Inc.'s decision to switch its 10.5-million-card debit portfolio to MasterCard International from Visa U.S.A., though a big win for MasterCard, doesn't necessarily herald a trend, observers say. At the same time, it throws into relief a bylaw Visa quietly put into place in 2003 that penalizes large debit-card-issuing …
Read More »Visa Holiday Volume Up 15.7%, as Transactions Peak Christmas Eve
Visa reports the holiday shopping season generated a 15.7% increase in dollar volume on its card products compared to the same time last year, with volume reaching $218.7 billion on all Visa-branded cards in the Nov. 1 to Jan. 2 period. Consumer spending on the company's debit cards grew 26.2%, …
Read More »Visa: Consumer Spending Surged in Stores on Christmas Eve
Consumer holiday spending surged ahead on Christmas Eve, according to new data released over the weekend by Visa USA. The card company says total spending on its credit and online and signature-based debit cards last Friday came to more than $4.35 billion, up 11.7% from Christmas Eve last year, ranking …
Read More »CVS Will Roll Out AmEx’s ExpressPay, But AmEx Loses Walgreen’s
It has been an eventful week for American Express Co. Today the company announced that Woonsocket, R.I.-based drugstore chain CVS Corp. has agreed to serve as the first national merchant to accept ExpressPay, an AmEx system that relies on radio waves rather than card swipes to authorize transactions. This news …
Read More »AmEx-Citi Is Great PR for AmEx, But How Profitable Will It Really Be?
Citigroup Inc.'s decision to issue American Express cards may turn out to be a more symbolic than substantive victory in the credit card wars for AmEx, according to some observers. “It's clearly a victory, but more a marketing victory,” says Gwenn Bezard, a payments-industry analyst at New York-based research firm …
Read More »Visa Logs Busiest Weekend Yet for This Year’s Holiday Season
Visa U.S.A. says spending on its cards over the past weekend was the strongest yet seen this holiday shopping season, exceeding spending during the so-called Black Friday weekend after Thanksgiving by 15%. Indeed, Black Friday itself now ranks third in Visa spending, behind the volume reached this past Friday and …
Read More »