Under an expanded agreement, cross-border payments specialist TransferWise Ltd. will issue Mastercard debit cards in any market globally where Mastercard is accepted and TransferWise is licensed. TransferWise has issued more than 1 million cards globally since the agreement commenced in Europe in 2018.Consumer satisfaction with credit card issuers is plummeting as the Covid-19 pandemic …
Read More »Blackhawk To Distribute Covid-19 Relief Cards and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 8/19/20
Payments provider Blackhawk Network Inc. said it is working with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to distribute a total of $25 million in aid on 50,000 prepaid cards to health-care professionals battling Covid-19. The money was donated by Facebook Inc.Payroll-services provider PayActiv Inc. said its study of usage data from a sample …
Read More »Walmart’s Online Sales Soar 97% and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 8/18/20
Walmart Inc. reported its U.S. e-commerce sales increased 97% year-over-year in the June quarter.Card-issuing platform Marqeta Inc. has released Marqeta 3D Secure to help issuers combat online fraud and meet regulatory requirements in certain markets. 3D Secure is an authentication protocol developed by the major card networks.Cardknox Development Inc. announced its payments gateway is …
Read More »Credit Union Data Point to Robust Growth for Wallet, Contactless Card, And Online Activity
More evidence emerged Monday that, for all of its horrors, the coronavirus has been a boon for mobile wallets and for contactless payments generally. Wallets, which struggled to win consumer adoption in the United States even with backing from popular tech firms like Apple Inc. and Google, are increasingly turning …
Read More »AmEx To Acquire Kabbage and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 8/17/20
American Express Co. announced it has agreed to acquire digital lender Kabbage Inc. in a deal expected to close later this year. Kabbage’s existing loan portfolio is not included in the transaction, for which terms were not announced. Eleven-year-old Kabbage entered the payment processing business in 2018.Restaurants and other businesses in Pasadena, Calif., …
Read More »Movie Chain Promotes Contactless Payments as It Reopens and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 8/14/20
Movie theater chain Cinemark Holdings Inc. announced it is encouraging consumers to use contactless payments when it reopens its locations beginning Friday.Curb, a mobile platform for taxi-ride hailing and payments, said the city of Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection is the first client for a new service aimed at …
Read More »COMMENTARY: How a Shift to Online Explains the Square-Merchant Dustup
There’s been a lot of buzz around recent reports—notably one in The New York Times—that Square has been withholding money from merchants. Apparently, with little to no warning, the company has been holding back up to 30% of merchant sales in some cases. The merchants affected, obviously, aren’t pleased. With …
Read More »The USDA’s Online EBT Program Gets a Covid Kick, According to New Fiserv Data
A program launched last year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to let holders of electronic benefit transfer cards spend their benefits online has quickly expanded to 42 states and the District of Columbia, up from just seven states as recently as March, according to Fiserv Inc., which is working …
Read More »Standard Cognition Argues It Has a Better Alternative to Amazon Go. Will Circle K Prove It?
Standard Cognition Corp., a San Francisco-based provider of autonomous checkout systems based on artificial intelligence, expects to have the first of Alimentation Couche-Tard’s Circle K convenience stores retrofitted and up and running in early 2021, with potentially dozens more to follow. The first store to adopt the technology will be in …
Read More »E-Commerce Sales See Gains in July, But So Does Fraud, Says ACI Worldwide
The Covid-19 pandemic in July fueled a sharp rise in e-commerce but also in fraud, according to the latest figures from ACI Worldwide Inc. Global e-commerce transactions rose 19% in July over the same period a year earlier. Fraudulent transactions by value rose 4.4%, up from a 3.7% increase in …
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