News

January, 2018

• 30 January

  Sage Payment Solutions Rebrands As Paya And Aims at Higher Visibility As a Payments Company

  

  Seven months after paying $260 million for Sage Payment Solutions, the U.S. merchant-services arm of Sage Group plc, investment firm GTCR LLC is giving it a new name—Paya—and a refreshed strategy to add more merchants to its portfolio. Announced Tuesday, the Paya name for the Reston, Va.-based payments provider signifies a …
• 29 January

  Facing Popular P2P Rivals, Bank-Owned Zelle Posts Healthy Growth And Revs up Ads

  

  In the hotly contested person-to-person payment business, financial institutions have felt left behind by technology impresarios like PayPal Holdings Inc. and Square Inc. that have entered the market over the past few years with slick P2P apps. But on Monday, the banks’ Zelle network released fresh numbers indicating healthy growth …
• 29 January

  Discover Goes for a Ride in San Diego and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/29/18

  

  The U.S. Secret Service began warning financial institutions last week about ATM “jackpotting,” in which a machine quickly spits out huge amounts of cash after being physically compromised by organized gangs and infected with a variant of malware first seen in 2013, according to KrebsOnSecurity. Hackers are especially targeting Diebold …
• 26 January

  Bitcoin Transaction Fees Ease off Sharply, But How Long Will the Trend Last?

  

  Long confirmation times and hefty transaction fees have pushed some Bitcoin backers to back away from the digital currency in recent weeks, but now there are signs that one of those problems is easing significantly while the other is growing much worse. The median transaction fee stood at $5.69 as …
• 26 January

  Your Opinion Counts

  

  What impact might the PCI Security Standards Council’s recently released spec enabling PIN on glass transactions with commercially available, off-the-shelf devices have on mobile point-of-sale equipment sales? http://ow.ly/k2h030i1yQs  #payments #survey
• 26 January

  Starbucks Brews New Cards and Mulls Blockchain Technology

  

  Investors gave Starbucks Corp. the cold shoulder Friday morning on news that despite a record $6.1 billion in quarterly revenues, growth is slowing in the United States. But the coffee giant’s payments business has several initiatives brewing, executives reported late Thursday. A leader in closed-loop prepaid cards and mobile payments …
• 26 January

  PayNearMe Announces Collaboration and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/26/18

  

  • Bill processor Invoice Cloud announced a collaboration with PayNearMe to allow customers to pay bills with cash at participating retail stores, including CVS, 7-Eleven, Family Dollar, Casey’s General Stores, and ACE Cash Express. • The Miami Parking Authority, the municipal parking-management authority for Miami, said drivers had used the …
• 25 January

  The Beat Picks Up at Pulse as Discover’s Transaction Volume Grows

  

  Last year was a year of revival for Discover Financial Services’ long-suffering Pulse debit network, which posted a 19% fourth-quarter increase in year-over-year dollar volume on 15% more transactions. The strong finish—$42.4 billion in volume on 1.03 billion transactions—brought Pulse’s full-year volume to $157.1 billion, up 14% from $138 billion …
• 25 January

  Tender Armor’s Cash Infusion Aimed at Growth And New Hires to Fight Online Fraud

  

  Fraud-prevention specialist Tender Armor LLC intends to use the proceeds from its latest funding round to hire more personnel and launch its marketing efforts. Announced Thursday, the funding round, for an unspecified amount (though characterized as “multimillion”), is a big step in growing the startup, says Madeline K. Aufseeser, chief …
• 25 January

  The Democratization of Bitcoin: An ATM Network Appeals to Average Joes

  

  Bitcoin may have slipped from the near $20,000 price it commanded a little over a month ago, but it’s still selling for around $11,000, nearly a dozen times its value a year ago. That’s drawing in plenty of investors and other high rollers, but it’s also attracting average citizens, including …