Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
U.S. Bancorp is joining the ranks of banks and tech companies testing near-field communication (NFC) technology by pairing a rewards credit card account with Apple Inc.’s iPhone in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Portland, Ore. The Minneapolis-based banking company is offering new holders of its FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa …
Read More »Slate Tied to Dissident Shareholder Group Wins Seats on OTI Board
A slate of eight director candidates supported by a dissident shareholder group won election on Sunday at a special meeting of shareholders held by On Track Innovations Ltd., a vendor of contactless-payment solutions. The election, which expands the company’s board to 11 directors, hands control over the 22-year-old Israeli company …
Read More »Isis Uses ISOs, Subsidized Terminals To Build Merchant Base for Its NFC Wallet
As it rolls out its service in Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City, the Isis mobile-payments venture is teaming up with independent sales organizations and merchant processors to sign up merchants to accept its mobile wallet. One of those ISOs, Phoenix-based MobiSquad, currently has about 350 merchants in the launch …
Read More »By Taking a Pass on NFC, Apple Punches a Hole in a Key NFC Forecast
When Apple Inc. this fall launched its latest smart phone, the iPhone 5, without a near-field communication (NFC) chipset, the move was widely seen as a blow to the prospects for NFC as a technology for mobile payments. Now comes a report estimating just how damaging that blow could be. …
Read More »Google Mobile Chief Bedier Issues a Teaser About a New Wallet Version to Come Soon
Google Inc. will launch yet another new version of its mobile wallet in about a month, Google’s top executive for the product said on Monday. The latest version, which Osama Bedier, vice president of Google Wallet and payments, referred to as “the 2.0 version” of the product, comes just short …
Read More »Isis Launches with Nearly 1,000 Merchant Locations, Nine Smart Phones
The carrier-backed Isis mobile-payment service debuted in a low-key launch Monday in Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City with almost 1,000 merchant locations participating and its near-field communication (NFC) system workable on nine smart-phone models. Digital Transactions News counted 493 merchant locations in the Salt Lake area and 470 in Austin, for …
Read More »With Isis Finally Launching Its Two-City Pilot, Consumers Get a Chance To Decide Its Fate
It looks like it’s finally going to happen. The much-anticipated, much- delayed Isis mobile-payment venture backed by three big telecommunications companies is scheduled to go live on Monday in its test cities of Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City. Now the ultimate consumers of the new system, mobile-phone users, will …
Read More »Isis and USAT Strike a Deal That Could Bring Mobile Payments to 7,500 Vending Machines
Isis, the object of skepticism this summer because of delays in rolling out its mobile-payment system based on near-field communication (NFC) technology, might be about to gain some traction thanks to a new agreement with vending-machine payments provider USA Technologies Inc. (USAT). In a little-noticed disclosure last week, Malvern, Pa-based …
Read More »Latest Isis Delay Leaves Open When the Venture Will Finally Launch
With the Isis mobile-payments venture having announced yet another delay, it remains unclear just what is causing the holdup and when the service will launch. And, say observers, time may be growing short for the venture, which is backed by three of the country’s largest wireless carriers. “I don’t know …
Read More »Once in the NFC Vanguard, a Struggling ViVOtech Heads for Liquidation
Financially struggling contactless card technology provider ViVOtech Inc. insisted just over a month ago when it sold its hardware business that it was staying in operation and focusing on software. But now the company appears to be headed toward liquidation. A document sent to creditors and others with a financial …
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