Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
A bipartisan group of 18 state attorneys general sent a letter to Congress asking lawmakers to advance legislation “that would allow states that have legalized medical or relational use of marijuana to bring that commerce into the banking system.” Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, forcing many legal cannabis businesses in 29 …
January, 2018
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16 January
Gift Card Provider Blackhawk Network Going Private in $3.5 Billion Buyout
Gift and prepaid card services provider Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. reported Tuesday that it has a deal with two financial firms to be taken private for $3.5 billion. Private-equity firm Silver Lake Management L.L.C. and hedge fund P2 Capital Partners are offering $45.25 per share in cash. The offer represents …
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16 January
Bitcoin Value Swoons and other Digital Transactions News briefs
Vantiv Inc.’s acquisition of Worldpay Group plc, which was announced in August, officially closed Tuesday, forming a company called Worldpay Inc. The combined company processes more than 40 billion transactions worth more than $1.5 trillion annually around the world. Over a 24-hour period, a swooning Bitcoin shed nearly $2,600 in …
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15 January
A Sluggish Uptake for Mobile Payments Opens a Door for Tech-Oriented Payment Cards
When major technology companies started launching mobile-payments services a few years ago, many observers figured digitized and tokenized card credentials would soon replace old-fashioned plastic. But now, the chronically sluggish adoption and usage rates these mobile wallets have registered is lending new life to plastic cards. The twist is that …
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15 January
Lighthouse Network Buys Shift4 And Says It Will Rebrand Itself as Shift4 Payments
Lighthouse Network, the company behind such acquiring and point-of-sale brands as Harbortouch and POSitouch, announced Monday it has purchased Shift4 Corp., a Las Vegas-based payment gateway, for an undisclosed amount. Allentown, Pa.-based Lighthouse also announced it would adopt the Shift4 name, rebranding itself as Shift4 Payments. It was only in …
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15 January
Cardlytics Files an IPO and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/15/18
Cardlytics Inc., which provides marketers with payment card purchase information as well as ACH and bill-payment data from 2,000 partner financial institutions, filed for a $75 million initial public offering. Cardlytics says that in 2016 its platform analyzed more than 18 billion online and in-store transactions across more than 94 million accounts, …
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13 January
Zelle Rolls Out the First National TV Commercials for Its P2P Service
Zelle on Saturday was set to run the first spots in its initial national mass-media marketing campaign, which is centered on the Tony and Grammy Award-winning actor and rapper Daveed Diggs in an effort to appeal to what the bank-controlled person-to-person payments service calls the “mobile majority” of consumers. The …
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12 January
Visa’s EMV-Only Signature Rule Change May Prompt More Merchant EMV Adoption
Visa Inc.’s announcement Friday that it will make signature authentication optional for EMV contact and contactless transactions in North America starting in April might provide another boost for merchants who have yet to adopt chip-card acceptance, suggests an analyst. Signatures remain a requirement for Visa magnetic stripe-based transactions not subject to …
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12 January
Visa Says It, Too, Will Make Signatures Optional for North American EMV POS
Visa Inc. is joining the other three card brands in making signatures optional for many of its transactions beginning in April. The card brand, which had credit card volume of $499 billion and debit volume of $388 billion in its fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, says in a blog post published …
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12 January
Same-Day ACH Debits Already Account for Almost Half of Same Day Volume, NACHA Reports
Same-day processing for both credits and debits on the automated clearing house network finished its first full quarter on Dec. 31, and numbers released Thursday show a solid increase in volume and dollars. In particular, same-day debits, introduced Sept. 15 , are growing fast and finished the final quarter accounting for …
