News

February, 2019

• 3 February

  New Jersey Lawmakers Pass Bill To Protect Cash-Paying Consumers

  

  New Jersey legislators last week passed a bill with overwhelming support to prevent businesses from banning consumers from using cash for purchases. The bill, which now goes to Gov. Phil Murphy for his signature, would make New Jersey only the second state to protect cash-using customers in stores. The proposed …
• 1 February

  Going by Share Prices, Investors Like What They See in the Massive Fiserv-First Data Deal

  

  Fiserv Inc. and First Data Corp. argue their proposed $22 billion combination will usher in a processing behemoth that should create substantial operating efficiencies and economies of scale. And so far, investors are buying that story. Shares of both companies are up by double-digit percentages since the Jan. 16 announcement …
• 1 February

  Same-Day and P2P Volumes Boom on the ACH While Back-Office Conversions Stage a Comeback

  

  Growth on the automated clearing house network continued apace in 2018’s fourth quarter, boosted by same-day transactions, person-to-person payments, and online commerce. The massive network linking nearly all of the nation’s financial institutions tallied 5.97 billion transactions, up 8.7% from 5.49 billion a year earlier. It was the network’s fastest …
• 1 February

  Elavon Plans To Hire 500 More Employees and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/1/19

  

  Elavon, the Atlanta-based merchant-acquiring subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, says it plans to hire approximately 500 employees globally over the next three years. Elavon currently employs more than 730 people in Atlanta and more than 4,500 worldwide. BlockChyp Inc., a payment software and gateway provider, said it completed Level 3 certification …

January, 2019

• 31 January

  Mastercard Issuers Jumping on the Contactless Card Bandwagon

  

  So far, Visa Inc. has dominated the headlines regarding the U.S. conversion to contactless payment cards. Mastercard Inc., however, will soon be getting into the act. “In the U.S., contactless momentum continues to grow on both issuing and acceptance sides,” Mastercard president and chief executive Ajay Banga said Thursday. “We …
• 31 January

  Lightspeed Debuts Lightspeed Payments and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/31/19

  

  Point-of-sale system maker Lightspeed debuted Lightspeed Payments, a service for in-store and e-commerce payments. The service unifies a merchant’s card-present and card-not-present transaction data into one reporting location within the Lightspeed POS software. Regardless of the card type, merchants pay 2.6% plus 10 cents per card-present payment and 2.6% plus …
• 30 January

  Visa Eyes More Contactless Cards And More Volume From Visa Direct

  

  Visa Inc. saw payment volume growth of nearly 11% in the quarter ended Dec. 31, and sees ever-more contactless cards and volume on its Visa Direct real-time payments service in its future. Visa on Wednesday reported a respectable first quarter of fiscal 2019, according to its chief executive, despite the …
• 30 January

  PayPal Chalks up a Big Quarter As It Decouples From eBay And Ratchets up Venmo

  

  In reporting its performance for the fourth quarter of 2018 as well as the full year, PayPal Holdings Inc. indicated its dependence on former owner eBay Inc. is down, Venmo monetization is up, and active accounts are surging. Meanwhile, the San Jose, Calif.-based company said it is entering a potentially …
• 30 January

  Apple Pay Volume Exceeds 1.8 Billion and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/30/19

  

  Apple Pay processed more than 1.8 billion transactions in fiscal 2019’s first quarter ended Dec. 31, “well over twice the volume” of the year-earlier quarter, Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook told analysts late Tuesday, according to a SeekingAlpha.com call transcript. Apple Pay is now live in 27 countries, most recently …
• 29 January

  TSYS Sets ‘Aggressive Goals’ for Vital But Predicts ‘Headwinds’ From the CFPB’s Prepaid Rule

  

  Top executives at Total System Services Inc. on Tuesday predicted big results from the Columbus, Ga.-based processor’s new Vital line of point-of-sale payment devices but also warned the onset of a massive federal regulation this spring will crimp prepaid card revenues in 2019. They also assured analysts on a conference …