A new European Commission report shows how interchange regulation has lowered merchants’ payment card acceptance costs and taken more than $3 billion a year from card issuers’ top lines. The EC, the executive arm of the Brussels-based European Union, implemented its so-called Interchange Fee Regulation in 2015 and 2016. The …
June, 2020
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18 June
Private-Label Debit Provider ZipLine Sold to PDI
ZipLine, the provider of private-label debit payment services for convenience stores like Cumberland Farms, has been acquired by Professional Datasolutions Inc., a c-store software developer and services company. Announced Thursday, the deal will enable Alpharetta, Ga.-based PDI to bundle ZipLine’s private-label debit and mobile-payment app with its Marketing Cloud Platform. …
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15 June
It’s Goodbye Cards, Hello Electric Cars for Publicly Traded Processor Net Element
Merchant processor Net Element Inc. has a letter of intent to merge with Mullen Technologies Inc., a privately held startup that plans to sell Chinese-made electric sports cars in the U.S. The pending deal, announced Monday, requires Net Element to divest its payment-processing business. The so-called “reverse triangular merger” is …
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5 June
Merchant Acquirer Shift4 Payments Prices IPO Above Expected Range
Investors appear eager to buy stocks of payment-processing companies as evidenced Thursday by Shift4 Payments Inc. pricing its initial public offering at $23 per share, nearly 10% above the high end of the $19 to $21 range it had expected just days earlier. Shift4’s shares opened late Friday morning on …
May, 2020
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19 May
In a Twist on Contactless, PayPal Rolls Out a QR Code App for Small And Occasional Sellers
In an effort to reach occasional and very small sellers struggling with restrictions imposed to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic, PayPal Holdings Inc. on Tuesday launched a Quick Response code capability for its mobile app. The feature allows a buyer to scan a QR code displayed by a seller …
March, 2020
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20 March
Experts Expect Even Faster Growth for Same-Day ACH As a $100,000 Cap Goes Into Effect
Faster payments got a boost Friday as Nacha, the governing body for the nation’s automated clearing house network, raised the limit on same-day payments from $25,000 to $100,000. The move follows a similar action earlier this year by The Clearing House Payments Co. for real-time transactions and is expected to …
February, 2020
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26 February
EBay Sets Its Sights on the U.K. As It Prepares to ‘Go Hard’ With Its Managed-Payments Plan
Online marketplace giant eBay Inc. said last month it has an aggressive expansion blueprint for its fledgling managed-payments program, and late on Wednesday the company announced its latest gambit by laying out a plan to move into the United Kingdom this summer. The service has been available in the United …
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20 February
Ally Financial Agrees to Buy CardWorks, Parent of Major Acquirer Merrick Bank
Ally Financial Inc. announced this week it will buy CardWorks Inc. for $2.65 billion. CardWorks owns Merrick Bank, a major player in merchant acquiring. In the deal, expected to close in the third quarter, Detroit-based Ally says Merrick Bank will merge into Ally Bank. Merrick has approximately $32 billion in …
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11 February
Repay Expands Its Footprint with Ventanex Acquisition
Payment-services provider Repay Holdings Corp. continued its run of acquisitions Monday when it announced it bought Ventanex for up to $50 million. Ventanex is an integrated-payments provider operating in consumer finance, especially mortgage-loan servicing, business-to-business health-care payments, and some other segments. Founded in 2012 and based in the Dallas suburb …
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11 February
Mastercard Forms a Joint Venture To Clear Domestic Chinese Card Transactions
Mastercard Inc. is the latest U.S. payments company to take initial steps to operate in China with Tuesday’s announcement it will form a joint venture with NetsUnion Clearing Corp. to establish a domestic bank card clearing entity. The entity formed from the joint venture—Mastercard NUCC Information Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd.—received …