Despite inflation hitting a 40-year high, consumer spending during the back-to-school season is projected to increase 7.5%, excluding automotive sales, from 2021 levels, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse, which measures in-store and online retail sales across all forms of payment, not adjusted for inflation. Department stores are expected to be …
Read More »Mastercard Opens up to NFT Purchases and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/10/22
Mastercard Inc. said it is working with seven companies to enable its branded payment cards to be used for making non-fungible token purchases. NFTs are digital goods.Sardine, a provider of anti-fraud and compliance technology to fintechs, said it will work with cryptocurrency-technology provider Zero Hash to enable instant settlement on the …
Read More »Apple’s Decision to Self-Finance Its BNPL Offering Raises Key Questions, Observers Say
When Apple Inc. on Monday announced Apple Pay Later, its buy now, pay later program, the computing giant added an unexpected twist. The new program will not rely for financing on Goldman Sachs, Apple’s long-time partner for Apple Pay. Rather, Apple is setting up its own unit, to be called …
Read More »How Phishing Groups Are Exploiting the Trend Toward Online Surfing at the Kitchen Table
The pandemic sent workers home to work, and online criminals have been quick to take advantage of that mass migration. Phishing attacks are now at a record high, with incidents in the first quarter breaching 1 million for the first time, according to a report released Tuesday by the Anti-Phishing …
Read More »90% of Transactions Use EMV Tech and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/8/22
EMVCo reported the number of EMV chip cards in circulation globally has grown by 1.1 billion over the past year to a total of 12 billion. Some 68% of all cards issued are now EMV-enabled and 90% of all card-present transactions use EMV chip technology, according to the global standards body.Paysafe …
Read More »Android Specialist MagicCube Extends Dongle-Free Acceptance to Large Merchants
MagicCube Inc. has chiefly aimed its tap-to-pay technology at small sellers to allow them to take card payments directly on an off-the-shelf mobile device. But on Monday the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company announced a version of its i-Accept platform for enterprise and big-box merchants. To make i-Accept more attractive to …
Read More »BofA Card Volume up and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/7/22
Total credit and debit card dollar volume for Bank of America Corp. increased 9% in May year-over-year, with credit card volume up 16% and debit volume up 9%, the Bank of America Institute reported.A research report from Aite-Novarica finds what the report calls “excessively high rates” of identity theft, which the report says …
Read More »Apple Makes It Official: With Apple Pay Later, It’s Jumping With Both Feet Into the BNPL Fray
Apple Inc.’s sneak peek at its iOS16 operating system on Monday included the news that the new version will include Apple’s widely expected entry in the hot buy now, pay later market. Available in the U.S. market, Apple Pay Later will be accepted at all places that take Apple Pay …
Read More »Canada’s Interac Hits 1 Billion Payments Thanks to Rising Consumer And Business Adoption
High usage rates and increasing adoption by small businesses are the primary factors that have led Interac, Canada’s national debit and account-to-account payment network, to hit a record 1 billion transactions for the 12-month period ended April 30, a 16% increase from the same period a year earlier. A recent …
Read More »Contactless Card Shipments Broke Through the 2 Billion Barrier for the First Time in 2021
Despite a persistent shortage of microchips, global shipments of contactless cards hit the 2-billion mark for the first time in 2021, totaling 2.63 billion for the year, according to the Smart Payment Association, a Munich-based trade group. Propelling the surge was the shipment of an additional 269 million contactless cards …
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