InComm Payments announced Tuesday that its Visa-branded Vanilla Gift Cards can now be downloaded to Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay mobile wallets, enabling the card to be used for contactless payments. It is the first open-loop Visa gift card to be supported on mobile wallets, InComm says. In …
Read More »Capital One Halts BNPL Credit Card Transactions
Capital One Financial Corp. is barring all of its credit cards from being used for point-of-sale lending transactions, aside from the United Kingdom where buy now, pay later products are being reviewed for possible regulation. The move comes as overall buy now, pay later providers garner a lot of attention, …
Read More »Credit Card Use Dips 2% and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/7/20
Overall U.S. credit card use dipped 2% for the week ending Nov. 29 compared with the week ending Dec. 1, 2019, according to the Tracking Transaction Trends report from PSCU, a credit union service organization. Meanwhile, debit card use increased 4.9% for the same period. Regionally, the largest credit card drop was …
Read More »COMMENTARY: What To Think About When You Implement Contactless Payments
At UL, we have seen both customers and merchants are experiencing an increased need for contactless payment options in brick-and-mortar stores. The current pandemic is a large factor in this, of course, but so also is the convenience and speed that contactless payments bring when compared to the traditional contact …
Read More »X9 Solicits Faster Payments Input and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/3/20
The Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. said it is seeking participants for a newly-formed a study group on faster and real-time payments. The ASC X9 develops national and international standards for the financial-services industry.Payments-technology provider Payfacto Payments Inc. has partnered with Community Federal Savings Bank to launch a merchant-acquiring unit for the U.S. market …
Read More »With an Assist From Visa, MagicCube Looks for Rapid Expansion in the U.S. And Abroad
The Covid-19 pandemic is driving consumers and merchants to opt for contactless options, and now software that can enable an ordinary smart phone to accept cards via near-field communication is moving faster toward the point of sale. Visa Inc. on Wednesday granted a so-called security compliance allowance to MagicCube Inc.’s …
Read More »Sysnet Acquires ControlScan Unit and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/2/20
Sysnet Global Solutions said it acquired the Managed Complication Solutions division of ControlScan Inc. With the acquisition, Sysnet said almost 4 million small and mid-size businesses and payment processing companies use its services. Terms were not disclosed.Fido Merchant Services, a United Kingdom-based payment gateway and merchant services provider, is embarking on …
Read More »Libra Changes its Name to Diem and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/1/20
The Libra Association, the organization behind the Libra cryptocurrency project, said it is renaming itself Diem, Latin for “day.” Acknowledging pressure from governments and regulators worldwide, the association this spring changed course on several key strategies, setting out new plans for single-currency stablecoins and a stronger compliance regime.Commerce platform Shopify Inc. said its merchants had …
Read More »Shopify’s Black Friday Volume up 75% and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 11/30/20
Commerce platform Shopify Inc. reported $2.4 billion in global Black Friday sales, a 75% increase from 2019. Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving. Mobile sales accounted for 68% of U.S. transactions and desktop, 32%. Top U.S. cities were New York, Los Angeles, and Vernon, Calif. The average ticket of $93.80 was …
Read More »COMMENTARY: The DoJ Is Right in Suing To Stop Visa’s Deal For Plaid. Here’s Why (Part II)
Unlike Visa and Mastercard, Plaid is not just another credit and debit card company largely beholden to the big banks. It uses modern technology, in a sector that has been slow to adopt it, to create a new payments paradigm. It likely has no plans to issue cards or use …
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