News

February, 2023

• 8 February

  Visa Rolls Out Incentives for Small Businesses To Use Its Business Card And Accept Digital Payments

  

  Seeking to entice small businesses to pay for purchases using their Visa business card, Visa Inc. on Wednesday launched Visa SavingsEdge, a program that rewards small businesses that have Visa business cards with savings and discounts on business-related services from about 60 merchants. The rewards and incentives include everyday savings …
• 8 February

  The Potential to Choose Foreign Networks Worries Backers of Credit Card Choice

  

  A bill designed to allow merchants to have a choice of networks for routing credit card transactions failed to pass last year, but now international tensions could affect the proposed law’s prospects in the new Congress. The bill, called the Credit Card Competition Act, would mandate that merchants have a …
• 8 February

  What Drives Cart Abandonment And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/8/23

  

  Cost surprises at checkout are the leading cause of cart abandonment, with 57% of consumers saying they walked away from checkout at least once in the past year because of unexpected delivery costs, according to a wide-ranging shopping report released by point-of-sale technology provider Verifone Inc., which surveyed 995 respondents globally. Price …
• 7 February

  Fiserv “Is Better Than the Sum of Its Parts,” Its CEO Says As It Finishes ‘22 With Double-Digit Growth

  

  Merchant acceptance, payments, and network and financial technology were the key pillars propelling Fiserv Inc.’s better -than-expected organic growth during the fourth quarter and for fiscal year 2022. Organic revenue growth—growth apart from recent acquisitions—for the three core segments of Fiserv’s business increased 17%, 9%, and 5%, respectively, compared to …
• 7 February

  Real-Time Payments Tee up in Separate Sionic And Oracle Offerings

  

  Real-time payments are getting more attention in financial services, and vendors are quickly enabling the faster-payment capability. Among the latest to do so is Sionic Corp., with its suite of services that includes its Verified Rapid Payments, and Oracle Corp., with a new set of cloud-based banking services. Atlanta-based Sionic …
• 7 February

  Merchants Target China And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/7/23

  

  The Merchants Payments Coalition released a letter it sent to the House Financial Services Committee arguing the Credit Card Competition Act should be enacted to block what the merchant-advocacy group calls a “national security threat” from China UnionPay, a China-based credit card network. The House committee has scheduled a hearing for this morning on “Combatting the …
• 6 February

  The U.S. Payments Forum Releases a Paper to Help Boost Sellers’ Adoption of PINless Debit

  

  Seeking to improve merchant adoption of PINless debit transactions, the U.S. Payments Forum Monday released a white paper detailing the potential obstacles to PINless debit implementation in the United States and how they can be overcome. One advantage of PINless debit transactions is that they can be processed faster than PIN-based debit transactions, …
• 6 February

  Blockchain on a Mobile App? AmazeWallet Says It’s Coming Soon

  

  A company called AmazeWallet over the weekend said it will soon launch a so-called super app that will let users run blockchain technology on a mobile phone. The app will run such functions as mining tokens, exchanging cryptocurrency, and sending encrypted messages, the London-based company noted. AmazeWallet said it has …
• 6 February

  Marqeta Closes On Power Finance And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/6/23

  

  Card-issuing platform Marqeta Inc. closed on its acquisition of Power Finance Inc., a credit card management service. The $275-million deal was announced Jan. 30. U.S. semiconductor maker MKS Instruments Inc. reported it is investigating a ransomware attack that happened last week, according to Reuters. The company said it is temporarily suspending operations at some its plants. A group …
• 3 February

  Air Travelers Pay For Checked Luggage Via Mobile Messaging App And Clickatell

  

  Clickatell, a U.S. provider of mobile commerce and messaging solutions, announced late Thursday it is partnering with South Africa-based airline FlySafair to enable the airline’s customers to pay for checked luggage using the WhatsApp messaging channel. To make a payment, the airline’s customers access the WhatsApp channel on their mobile …