Mastercard Inc. managed to remain profitable in the first quarter as the Covid-19 pandemic began to sweep the world, and its volume and transaction data for April indicate a possible bottoming out of the steep decline in consumer and business spending. U.S. dollar volume switched over Mastercard’s network in the …
Read More »USA Technologies Folds in Proxy Fight; Bergeron Named New Chairman
The proxy fight between vending machine payments provider USA Technologies Inc.’s board of directors and top management on one side and the company’s largest shareholder, Hudson Executive Capital, on the other ended Monday with Hudson Executive the victor. Malvern, Pa.-based USAT announced an agreement with the New York City-based investment …
Read More »Zelle Signups Growing and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/27/20
Early Warning Services LLC said enrollments in its Zelle peer-to-peer payments network since early March are increasing at “more than double-digit rates above average” as stay-at-home users deploy the service to reimburse neighbors for groceries and canceled events and send money to friends and relatives who need cash. Some 837 financial institutions have …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Contactless Payments Are Paying Off for Consumer Health
The onset of the novel coronavirus has caused a seismic shift in the daily lives of Americans. While recent data in the fight against this pandemic are encouraging, we’re not out of the woods yet, and we will be slow to return to life as we once knew it. Social …
Read More »Google’s Financial-Services Plans May Include a Card Redux
It’s well known that Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit wants to offer consumers checking accounts, though that service has yet to launch. But the search-engine giant also reportedly is developing a debit card that would work in concert with its Google Pay mobile-payments service, according to news reports from Silicon Valley. …
Read More »FreedomPay Adds Google Pay Support and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/17/20
Payments provider FreedomPay has added support for Google Pay, enabling Google Pay users to make e-commerce payments in Android apps and in Web browsers. This can be done on a merchant’s Web site regardless of browser or operating system or within an Android app, with FreedomPay securely integrating to the Google Payments …
Read More »Some Small Businesses Are Seeing Higher Sales During Pandemic, ETA-Strawhecker Survey Finds
The screeching slowdown in consumer spending caused by efforts to stem the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has hit U.S. small businesses particularly hard, but there are some bright spots, according to the Electronic Transactions Association and merchant-acquiring research and consulting firm The Strawhecker Group. The survey of more than …
Read More »Card Networks Up Canadian Contactless Transaction Limits To Limit Physical Contact
Contactless payments already capture a big share of point-of-sale purchases in Canada, and that share is sure to grow with recent announcements by Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. that they are raising their contactless transaction limits to C$250 to limit the handling of cards that could spread the coronavirus, according …
Read More »Grocer Publix Activating Contactless Payment Acceptance and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/3/20
Supermarket giant Publix said it is installing contactless-payment capability in all 1,242 of its stores in an effort expected to be completed by Saturday. The move will allow customers with mobile devices to pay via Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay. The chain also said it is beefing up efforts to …
Read More »Eye on Merchants: CardFlight Says Small Business Sales Down; E-Commerce Sales Growth Continues
A decline in transactions at small and mid-size businesses accelerated through March as consumers react to shelter-at-home and social-distancing precautions, according to data from point-of-sale technology provider CardFlight Inc. But their spending shifted to e-commerce in many merchant categories, finds data from Signifyd, a vendor of e-commerce fraud solutions. Sales …
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