News

January, 2019

• 29 January

  Data Breaches Fell in 2018, But Records Exposed More Than Doubled, Non-Profit Reports

  

  The number of known data breaches fell 24% in 2018, but the number of compromised records that contained sensitive personally identifiable information more than doubled from 2017’s levels to over 450 million, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s latest annual data-breach review. The San Diego-based non-profit and partner CyberScout …
• 29 January

  Only 14% Use Mobile Payments and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/29/19

  

  Just 14% of U.S. smart-phone users are using mobile-payments services from smart-phone makers, such as Apple Pay from Apple Inc., according to a survey from Juniper Research, which says “the window of opportunity in the U.S. for mobile-payment providers like Apple Pay and Google Pay is closing fast.” The survey …
• 28 January

  A New Marriott Card Lineup Lets AmEx Launch a Contactless Expansion

  

  When JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced in November it would soon start mass-issuing contactless Visa cards, industry experts expected the move to at last kickstart a trend in the U.S. payments industry toward tap-and-pay EMV plastic. But while most experts thought Chase’s decision might stir smaller banks to follow suit, …
• 28 January

  Discover’s Contactless Fitness Improves Through Its Link-Up With Garmin Pay

  

  Holders of Discover cards can now add their cards to the Garmin Pay mobile wallet for Garmin International Inc. wearable devices to make contactless payments, Discover Financial Services and Garmin announced Monday. Today’s announcement means that Discover is joining Visa and Mastercard as a payment option for Garmin Pay wallet …
• 28 January

  Payment Data Systems Posts 2018 Results and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/28/19

  

  Payment Data Systems Inc. said it processed $3.4 billion in volume in 2018, a 21% increase from 2017’s $2.8 billion. Risk-management firm Featurespace raised $32.3 million from a funding round led by Insight Venture Partners. Payments provider ACI Worldwide said it will process real-time payments for 17 banks in Hungary …
• 25 January

  A Blockchain Group Bets Its Tech Can Achieve High-Speed, High-Volume Payments Processing

  

  A consortium of academics is betting it has the formula to create a high-performance blockchain network capable of processing payments faster and at greater scale than competing blockchain networks. The network, called Unit-e, is expected to process transactions confirmed by consensus on the blockchain in 15 seconds. If realized, the settlement …
• 25 January

  Mastercard Aces Out Visa in Sudden Bidding War for B2B Processor Earthport

  

  In a rare public bidding war pitting the two leading payment card networks against each other, British business-to-business payment processor Earthport Plc’s board of directors on Friday recommended that its shareholders accept Mastercard Inc.’s all-cash buyout offer, which is 10% higher than Visa Inc.’s offer the board endorsed less than …
• 25 January

  Discover Reports 4Q Results and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/25/19

  

  Discover Financial Services said its payments services operation, which includes network partners, Diners Club International, and the Pulse electronic-funds transfer network, processed $60.5 billion in total volume in the fourth quarter, a 12% increase year-over-year. Volume on Pulse jumped 11% to $47.1 billion owing to new issuers as well as …
• 24 January

  Oxman Will Leave the ETA to Head up the Information Technology Industry Council

  

  Jason Oxman, chief executive officer of the Electronic Transactions Association since 2012, is leaving to accept a position as president and chief executive of the Washington, D.C.-based Information Technology Industry Council. He is expected to take up his new duties late next month. In his years heading the 29-year-old ETA, …
• 24 January

  Zelle’s 2018 Transactions Jump 75%, While It Moved $119 Billion in P2P Payments

  

  Zelle, the peer-to-peer payments service, had a banner 2018 with $119 billion in payments on 433 million transactions processed via its network of banks. That is a 58.7% increase in payments from 2017’s total of $75 billion and a 75.3% increase in transaction volume from 247 million. The increases were …