News

January, 2021

• 29 January

  A Tale of Two Halves: On the Dark Web, Trends in 2020 Took a Big Turn in the Middle of the Year

  

  Although the number of stolen credit cards for sale on the dark Web remained steady at around 45 million throughout 2020, some surprising trends emerged when it came to the type of cards for sale and the markets where they originated, says a new report from cybersecurity firm Sixgill. One such …
• 29 January

  Ex-Mastercard Executive’s Payment Tech-Focused Investment Firm and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/29/21

  

  Javier Perez, formerly president of Mastercard Europe, has launched Global PayTech Ventures, said to be the first venture-capital firm concentrating exclusively on payment technology.Springbrook Software, developer of systems supporting payments for local governments, released its Municipal Payments Collection portal, which supports payments for miscellaneous town fees. The portal is available via …
• 28 January

  As Visa Stages a Comeback From Covid, It Scopes Out Its Chances in Open Banking

  

  Visa Inc. along with many other payments companies was thrown for a loop by the coronavirus pandemic, but now it’s clawing it’s way back on the strength of debit cards, e-commerce, and a real-time payments service called Visa Direct. “In the United States, we are actually back to our prepandemic …
• 28 January

  In the Wake of the NCR-Cardtronics Deal, Experts Point to Some Intriguing Scenarios

  

  Now that NCR Corp. has reached an agreement to acquire Cardtronics plc, speculation is growing about what NCR plans to do with the new assets, specifically the 285,000 ATMs Cardtronics operates and its transaction-processing business.  For NCR, the value in the acquisition lies not in Cardtronics’ ATMs themselves, but in …
• 28 January

  How Mastercard’s Optimism Rides on Stimulus, Vaccines, And Debit Spending

  

  Mastercard Inc. saw overall payment volumes inch up in the final quarter of 2020, buoyed by rising debit card volumes and such factors as federal stimulus payments in the U.S. market, the card network’s top executives reported Thursday. Looking ahead, the arrival of vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic will …
• 28 January

  Mercatus Adds Online SNAP Option and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/28/21

  

  Grocery commerce provider Mercatus launched its SNAP EBT Online service that enables recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to order and pay for groceries online.Alliance Data Systems Corp. said its Bread unit is licensing its payments technology to Royal Bank of Canada to support the bank’s PayPlan point-of-sale installment-lending service. Alliance Data …
• 27 January

  PayPal Expands Its QR Payment App to Small Businesses Via Vistaprint

  

  Vistaprint, a provider of physical and digital marketing materials to small businesses, announced Wednesday an agreement with PayPal Holdings Inc. to enable small businesses to accept payments through Quick Response codes. To order Vistaprint marketing materials with a QR code, small businesses log on to Vistaprint’s Web site and choose …
• 27 January

  As Open Banking Grows More Popular, Banks Work to Streamline Links to Fintech Apps

  

  The firms that make payments apps work behind the scenes are facing a growing problem. As more and more consumers use the apps, more and more banks get involved, casting an ever-widening net of unique requirements on the data networks that connect the apps to users’ bank accounts.  That places …
• 27 January

  3dcart Rebranded as Shift4Shop and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/27/21

  

  Payments provider Shift4 Payments Inc. rebranded its e-commerce platform as Shift4Shop. The platform is based on 3dcart, a company Shift4 acquired in November.Seventy-two percent of consumers used a credit or debit card to complete a cross-border transaction, according to the Global Voices 2021: Cross-Border Shopper Insights survey from eShopWorld, a cross-border e-commerce company.Visa Inc. has …
• 26 January

  AmEx’s Top Exec Looks to Vaccines To Help Spur a Comeback for T&E Spending

  

  In a wide-ranging session, American Express Co.’s top brass Tuesday expressed optimism that increasing availability of coronavirus vaccines will soon induce consumers to travel and that the new Biden Administration’s policies are unlikely to have much impact on the New York City-based company’s core business. On an early morning conference …