Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Just as financial institutions were digesting the idea of letting consumers deposit checks by snapping images of them with their handsets, along comes PayPal Inc. with the first such application offered by a non-bank—and one that has so far proven to be quite popular. San Jose, Calif.-based PayPal announced late …
Read More »Out of Stealth, MobilePay USA Promises to Crack the POS
Payments-industry observers who have been frustrated by the slow progress of near-field communication (NFC) technology for point-of-sale mobile payments may find an alternative in a new mobile application called MobilePay USA. The service surfaced last week when it won an award at a conference sponsored by TechCrunch, a technology blog. …
Read More »Mobile-Payments Fraud Starts to Take Its Toll
Mobile payments are barely out of the starting gate, but fraudsters are quickly discovering the new channel’s potential for making a dishonest buck, according to new research from LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Fraud losses from mobile payments as a percentage of total revenue were 1.13% compared with 0.83% for online-only merchants …
Read More »Smart Phones Will Jumpstart Mobile Banking, Report Says
A dramatic downdraft in overall mobile-phone ownership has robbed mobile banking of its forward thrust, but the rapid rise of smart phones is compensating for much of that loss, a new research report says. Indeed, smart phone ownership will exceed that of so-called feature phones as soon as next year, …
Read More »Report Faults Merchants for Sub-Par Virtual Gift Cards
With the holiday shopping season only weeks away, the nation’s biggest retailers are falling short in their offerings of virtual gift cards, according to research released on Thursday. Of the country’s 100 biggest online merchants—many of which also operate large brick-and-mortar chains—only half offer virtual cards, which are gift “cards” …
Read More »Bling Nation’s PayPal Tie-In Gets a Boost from VeriFone
Bling Nation Ltd.’s decision to use VeriFone Systems Inc. terminals, announced this week, includes an agreement to harness VeriFone’s transaction gateway as well as its reseller network in a move that could bring PayPal Inc. acceptance to thousands of brick-and-mortar merchants. Bling has been testing PayPal acceptance since the end …
Read More »New Visa Ventures Tap the Growing Transit Payments Market
Visa Inc. raised its profile in the growing transit payments market on Tuesday with announcements that it was backing mobile payments for New York City-area commuters and was the exclusive card network for new prepaid fare cards in Los Angeles. Visa also said its payWave contactless card became usable Aug. …
Read More »DCS Launches Instant Issuance for NFC Memory Cards
Rising interest in contactless mobile payments via micro Secure Digital (SD) cards has led to the introduction of a feature that will let banks personalize SD cards for payments in a matter of minutes. The new feature, which can be used in a branch or other office, has the potential …
Read More »Pioneers in Consumer Capture Keep a Lid on Risk
Early adopters in the consumer remote deposit capture market say their services are a hit with customers, but they also say they are able to keep risk under control as remote deposit for smart phones seems poised to hit the big time. “It’s actually something that’s been very, very successful …
Read More »Star Launches Mobile Account Transfers with Obopay
Forming a mutual-aid society of sorts, mobile-payments technology provider Obopay Inc. and payment processor First Data Corp.’s Star electronic funds transfer network on Wednesday announced that Obopay’s new Mobile Money for Banks service would incorporate Star’s Expedited Transfer Service. The arrangement potentially gives Obopay as it ramps up its U.S. …
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