News

December, 2018

• 13 December

  Fast-Growing Merchant Acceptance Could Entice More Acquirers to Look Abroad

  

  A number of U.S. payments providers have expanded overseas in recent years, and now more may have an incentive to do so if recent research showing robust growth in merchant acceptance is any indication. The number of physical stores or outlets accepting payment cards worldwide reached 69.2 million last year, …
• 13 December

  P2P Dominates Banks’ Mobile Apps in Payments, but Other Functions Lag

  

  All but two of 27 bank mobile apps examined in a new S&P Global Inc. study offer person-to-person payments and another bank will soon add the feature to its app. But less than a third of the apps support cardless ATM transactions. The study by New York City-based S&P Global’s …
• 13 December

  Lightspeed Launches Lightspeed Loyalty and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/13/18

  

  The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with two defendants accused of laundering nearly $6 million in credit card charges through fraudulent merchant accounts. Lightspeed, developer of a cloud-based point-of-sale system, released Lightspeed Loyalty, a service that offers merchants a rewards program, automated marketing, customer data reporting, and, for restaurants, …
• 12 December

  As Voice Commerce Becomes More Common, Jack Henry Adds More Payment Services

  

  Core processors for financial institutions are starting to make their moves in voice-triggered consumer payments, and Jack Henry & Associates is looking to stake out an early lead in this nascent business. The Monett, Mo.-based company on Wednesday said its iPayQuickPay bill-pay service is integrated with Alexa smart speakers from …
• 12 December

  Deloitte: Look for Faster Payments on the B2B Side in 2019, And More Contactless Transactions

  

  The prognostications for 2019 are starting to roll in, and if at least one comes true, we’ll see business-to-business transactions driving the growth of faster-payment systems. And smart phones might actually gain some discernible traction at the point of sale. The predictions come from the big accounting and consulting firm …
• 12 December

  Blackboard Picks Bluefin Encryption Service and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/12/18

  

  Thales’s proposed all-cash acquisition of rival Gemalto received merger-control regulatory clearance by the European Commission. Effective immediately, the clearance is conditioned on Thales’s agreement to divest its general-purpose hardware security modules business worldwide. The deal still must clear regulatory hurdles in five other countries, including the United States. Bluefin Payment …
• 11 December

  Is Facial-Recognition Technology Hurting Apple Pay?

  

  Adoption and usage rates for the mobile wallets from Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc. (Google), and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. have been far from stellar, but now evidence is emerging that Apple’s decision a year ago to ditch fingerprint identification on its newest smart phones in favor of facial-recognition technology could …
• 11 December

  New Report Shows the Massive Scale of Bot Attacks

  

  Large companies are getting bombarded by approximately 530 bot attacks per day, and the vast majority of more than 200 firms surveyed have at least one person on their security teams devoted solely to bot defense, according to Osterman Research Inc. Osterman, a Black Diamond, Wash.-based research firm that works …
• 11 December

  Congressional Report Says Equifax Breach Was Preventable and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/11/18

  

  Cloud-based point-of-sale system maker ShopKeep said it closed a $65 million funding round, led by Tribeca Venture Partners, that it will use for expansion and growth purposes. New investors include First Data Corp. and Salesforce Ventures. A staff report released by Republicans on the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform …
• 10 December

  Government Releases Report on Campus Prepaid Card and Deposit-Account Fees

  

  A report from the U.S. Department of Education shows that fees college students pay for campus-sponsored prepaid cards and deposit accounts can vary widely. The report was prepared by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for the Education Department and completed in February, but not released until Friday. The release came …