Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Publicly-held merchant acquirers were the best-performing payments stocks of 2015, investment-advisory firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods says in its “2016 Outlook: Pay for Growth in This Environment” report released Tuesday. Among the acquirers and processors KBW tracks are PayPal Holdings Inc., Global Payments Inc., Vantiv Inc., Heartland Payment Systems …
Read More »Attorneys Announce $39 Million Settlement for Target Data-Breach Class Action
Attorneys for financial-institution plaintiffs suing Target Corp. to recoup their costs arising from Target’s massive 2013 data breach announced a $39.4 million settlement on Wednesday intended to bring their class-action lawsuit against the big-box retailer to an end. A U.S. District Court judge in St. Paul, Minn., was expected to …
Read More »Visa Says It’s ‘Extremely Encouraged’ by Results From EMV’s First Official Month
Visa Inc. on Tuesday reported U.S. EMV chip card statistics for October, the first month in which the payment card networks’ EMV liability shifts for point-of-sale transactions took effect. The numbers show EMV’s footprint is still small, but growing rapidly. There are now 180.6 million Visa-branded chip cards in the …
Read More »In a First for Debit Networks, Shazam Adds a Mobile Feature to Shut off Lost Or Stolen Cards
By John Stewart In the wake of the arrival of EMV chip cards and ahead of the holiday shopping rush, the Shazam debit network has launched a mobile feature that lets cardholders disable their debit cards should they be lost or stolen. While networks like Discover Financial Services have advertised …
Read More »The Bank Card Networks Dole Out Billions in Incentives To Build Traffic
Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. are shelling out ever more dollars to buy issuer loyalty and induce merchants to route transactions onto their networks. A Digital Transactions News analysis shows the two leading payment card networks are on track to spend approximately $6.75 billon on so-called rebates and incentives in …
Read More »Visa Inc. Will Buy Visa Europe, But Can It Get From Europe What It Earns in the U.S.?
Ending months of speculation, Visa Inc. on Monday announced it will buy its European counterpart, London-based Visa Europe Ltd., in a cash, stock, and earn-out deal valued at $23.4 billion. “We’re delighted to be reuniting the Visa family,” said Visa Inc. chief executive Charles W. Scharf in discussing the acquisition …
Read More »Pennsylvania Money-Transmitter Advisory for ISOs, Processors and Banks Sparks Concerns
A recent Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities’ advisory about potentially requiring independent sales organizations and processors to obtain money-transmitter licenses could pose problems for the payments industry. “It’s the wrong execution of the right idea,” Scott Talbott, senior vice president for government affairs at the Electronic Transactions Association, …
Read More »Chase Unveils Chase Pay, a Mobile Wallet That Will Work at Merchants Accepting CurrentC
JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Monday unveiled its Chase Pay mobile wallet and said the product will begin rolling out in the middle of next year. Chase also said its new wallet will be accepted at merchants belonging to the Merchant Customer Exchange LLC, a retailer-controlled consortium that has been …
Read More »Network Executives Tout EMV Chip Card Progress in Wake of Merchant Liability Shift
Two weeks after what has come to be regarded as the official start date for EMV chip cards in the United States, senior executives with the major card networks gave a largely upbeat progress report to an audience of acquiring-industry owners and managers last Thursday, while acknowledging that much work …
Read More »The Prepaid RushCard Declares a 4-Month Fee Holiday After Processing Glitch
UniRush LLC’s RushCard declared a four-month fee holiday over the weekend after a glitch during the prepaid card’s switch to a new processor that began Oct. 11 limited access to an undisclosed but apparently large number of customers’ accounts. Cincinnati-based UniRush did not identify the processor. The glitch apparently started …
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