Payments observers wondering when, and where, blockchain technology would take hold may want to pay close attention to cross-border remittances. Alipay Payment Services (HK) Ltd. said on Monday that it has launched a mobile-wallet based money-transfer service between Hong Kong and the Philippines using a blockchain backbone. The service, which …
June, 2018
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25 June
A Divided Supreme Court Upholds AmEx’s Anti-Steering Rules
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that American Express Co.’s anti-steering rules for merchants do not violate federal antitrust law. The conservative majority’s decision, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, caps a case that dates back to 2010 and involves merchants who wanted to steer merchants to …
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25 June
Worldnet TPS Completes Apple Pay Certification and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/25/18
VyStar Credit Union joined the Cardtronics plc network, enabling its members to have fee-free access at more than 20,000 Cardtronics ATMs. ATM operator Prineta LLC said it is the new ATM vendor at the Renaissance Columbus Westerville-Polaris Hotel in Columbus, Ohio. Payments provider Worldnet TPS Ltd. said it has completed …
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22 June
Consumers Increasingly Pay Billers Directly Rather Than Through Bank Sites
Payment volume through biller-direct Web sites continues to grow at the expense of bank bill-pay sites, according to new findings from Boston-based Aite Group LLC. Some 73% of the online bill payments made by consumers in 2016 went through biller-direct sites, up from 62% in 2010, according to Aite. Meanwhile, …
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22 June
PayPal Buying Simility for $120 Million and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/22/18
PayPal Holdings Inc. said it is buying Simility, a fraud-prevention and risk-management platform, for $120 million. Once the deal closes—expected in the third quarter—PayPal merchants will get access to Simility’s fraud tools, the company said. This is PayPal’s second acquisition announced this week. Wednesday PayPal said it was buying Hyperwallet for …
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21 June
Eye on Contactless: Mobeewave Eyes Small Canadian Merchants; U.K. Payments Double
Canadian fintech Mobeewave could see its contactless-payment service for Samsung smart phones expand thanks to a new agreement with National Bank of Canada. And this week a British financial trade group announced that contactless payments in the United Kingdom jumped 97% in 2017. Dubbed National Bank Easy Pay, the service …
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21 June
Mobile POS Is Poised to Soar Worldwide As Rising Card Acceptance Stokes Merchant Demand
The mobile point-of-sale revolution is picking up momentum, despite having started nearly a decade ago with the first attachable card-reading devices for mobile phones. Projections from United Kingdom-based Juniper Research released this week indicate the installed base of mobile point-of-sale devices of all kinds worldwide—including integrated technology from major vendors—will …
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21 June
Cardfree’s Mobile Wallet Patent and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/21/18
PayPal Holdings Inc. blocked sales of the violent video game Active Shooter, which lets players choose the role of a gunman terrorizing a school or of a SWAT team trying to stop him, the Associated Press reported; the game had been pulled from the online marketplace Steam after complaints but …
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20 June
A Consumer Survey Yields More Indications That Zelle Is Catching Up to Venmo
Zelle’s gestation as a favored person-to-person payments service may be nearing fulfillment. A new survey from LendEDU finds that, nine months after its June 2017 debut, more consumers had become aware of the bank-backed service. In 2017, only 6.1% had heard of Zelle. By the time of the survey, that …
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20 June
PayPal Opens Its Wallet Again, This Time To Buy Hyperwallet for $400 Million
Its pending $2.2 billion acquisition of Sweden’s iZettle still awaits final approval, but that didn’t stop PayPal Holdings Inc. from announcing late Tuesday that it has a deal to buy payout provider Hyperwallet for $400 million in cash. San Francisco-based Hyperwallet is an international specialist in provisioning payments, commissions, and …