News

October, 2019

• 30 October

  Green Dot Extends Pact With Walmart, And Both Firms Will Collaborate on a Fintech Lab

  

  Walmart Inc. and Green Dot Corp. reported Tuesday they have extended the prepaid program manager’s agreement with the giant retailer for another seven years, assuring that Green Dot will continue to serve as the issuing bank and manager for the Walmart MoneyCard program. Walmart says the new contract begins Jan. …
• 30 October

  Kroger Lifts Visa Ban and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 10/30/19

  

  The Kroger Co. lifted its acceptance ban on Visa credit cards at its Smith’s Food & Drug and Foods Co subsidiaries, according to news reports. Kroger, citing what it called high acceptance costs, first banned the cards at its small Foods Co chain in August 2018 and extended it to the larger Smith’s …
• 30 October

  EMVCo Is Eyeing Some New Initiatives for EMV 3-D Secure 2.0

  

  While much attention in the payments industry in recent months has focused on EMVCo’s Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) specification, another e-commerce spec from the standards body could be receiving some tweaks. These possible initiatives, which concern the EMV 3-D Secure specifications, include a way of adding users’ travel data to …
• 29 October

  Mastercard’s Top and Bottom Lines Benefit as Transaction Volume Jumps 20%

  

  Mastercard Inc. switched 20% more transactions on its worldwide network in the third quarter than it did a year earlier as purchase volumes remained strong and new growth markets generated more payments. “Growth was broad-based,” Mastercard president and chief executive Ajay Banga said Tuesday morning during the company’s third-quarter earnings …
• 29 October

  Uber Money Debuts and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 10/29/19

  

  Ride-share provider Uber Technologies Inc. announced Uber Money, an update to its roster of financial services, mostly for its drivers. Among the products is the relaunch of the Uber credit card in a deal with Barclays. Uber Money also can provide Uber drivers real-time access to their earnings in an Uber Debit …
• 29 October

  Synchrony Looks to Venmo’s Social Network To Help Market the P2P Service’s New Credit Card

  

  PayPal Holdings Inc. and Synchrony Financial have been sparing about the details of a new credit card they plan to issue for PayPal’s Venmo peer-to-peer payment service, but on Monday a top Synchrony executive said the partners are counting on a key characteristic of Venmo to help market the new card. …
• 28 October

  UPDATED: Eye on Amazon: Alexa Will Pay Your Bills

  

  Amazon.com Inc.’s payments ambitions continue to manifest themselves with Monday’s announcement that Paymentus Corp. will enable bill payment and management via Amazon’s voice-controlled Alexa devices. Charlotte, N.C.-based Paymentus said billers on the Paymentus Instant Payment Network will be able to offer consumers a way to link their utility accounts to …
• 28 October

  COMMENTARY: Three Huge Misconceptions Business Owners Have About Payment Solutions

  

  Owners of small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) generally have a negative outlook on the payments industry, and for good reason. The merchant-services world, in particular, has an ugly track record, including lackluster customer support, not to mention misleading sales practices that lead to costly processing rates, hidden fees, and burdensome …
• 28 October

  Four Merging ISOs Adopt Payroc Name and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 10/28/19

  

  Days after Nxgen and Payscape announced they were merging with a third payments provider, BluePay Canada, the new entity said it has agreed to combine with a fourth company, Payroc LLC, and adopt the Payroc name. James Oberman, Payroc’s chief executive, will serve as CEO of the merged entity.Discover Financial Services said it now …
• 25 October

  Nxgen, Payscape, And BluePay Canada Combine to Form a Processor Serving 25,000-Plus Merchants

  

  This year’s mega-mergers in the transaction-processing business are now starting to generate some smaller spin-off deals. On Friday, two payments providers, Nxgen International and Payscape, said they have acquired a third, BluePay Canada. Terms of the deal were not announced, and an overarching name for the tripartite company has not …