News

March, 2024

• 27 March

  Buying Groups Might—or Might Not—Give Merchants More Negotiating Power with the Card Networks

  

  Card-acceptance costs and network rules weren’t the only subjects covered by the sweeping settlement revealed Tuesday involving Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and lawyers for the merchants that sued them. The pending agreement, which needs approval from a federal judge, allows for the creation of so-called merchant buying groups that would …
• 27 March

  Every $1 Dollar in Fraud Costs Retailers $3, LexisNexis Risk Solutions Finds

  

  Fraud is nothing if not a persistent part of the payments landscape. It became more so in the past 12 months, as 60% of e-commerce merchants and 53% of retailers sustained increases in overall fraud levels, finds LexisNexis Risk Solutions in the 14th edition of its “LexisNexis True Cost of …
• 27 March

  Visa’s AI-Powered Trio and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/27/24

  

  Visa Inc. announced three technologies leveraging artificial intelligence and aimed at controlling fraud risk, including Visa Deep Authorization, real-time account-to-account payment protection, and extension of Visa Advanced Authorization and Visa Risk Manager to non-Visa card transactions. The services are expected to launch by mid-year. Cantaloupe Inc., a specialist in payments for …
• 26 March

  Visa And Mastercard Agree to Merchant Rate Cuts and Acceptance Changes in a Major Settlement

  

  Merchant lawsuits challenging credit card interchange and payment card network rules that began nearly two decades ago may finally be heading for resolution under a landmark settlement announced Tuesday by Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., and lawyers for the merchants. Merchant lawyers in the massive case estimate the settlement could save …
• 26 March

  Grocer Coop Expands Instacart Deal With AI-Powered Shopping Carts

  

  Grocery-ordering and -delivery provider Instacart says Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., a food wholesaler, expanded its partnership to include e-commerce and same-day delivery services to grocers that belong to the cooperative. The broader deal also includes access to Caper Carts, Instacart’s artificial intelligence-enhanced smart shopping carts. More than 800 AWG grocers …
• 26 March

  Breeze Taps Barclays and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/26/24

  

  Breeze Airways unveiled a credit card cobranded with Barclays US Consumer Bank. The card offers triple points on purchases of airfare and other items, including in-flight items. The Brussels-based financial-messaging body Swift said early testing of its early-stage central bank digital currency shows financial institutions can process a variety of transactions through CBDCs …
• 25 March

  Eye on Crypto: Bitcoin Depot Eyes Big Growth in 2024; BTCS Swings to a Profit

  

  Less than a year after going public, Bitcoin ATM network deployer Bitcoin Depot Inc. on Monday said it is eyeing substantial growth in 2024. Meanwhile, blockchain technology provider BTCS Inc. swung to a profit in 2023 after a loss in 2022. Recent developments from Atlanta-based Bitcoin Depot include the purchase …
• 25 March

  COMMENTARY: Cap One’s Bid for Discover Will Lift Many Boats

  

  Capital One’s proposed $35.3-billion acquisition of Discover will be a thunderclap for the debit-card, retail-banking, and payment-network markets. The Discover network has long been the number-five U.S. retail-payment network, after Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and PayPal. Since its acquisition of Diners Club from Citi in 2008, Discover has struggled as …
• 25 March

  X Gets More State OKs and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/25/24

  

  X Payments LLC, the payments platform for the social-media network X (formerly Twitter), received money-transmitter licenses last week from New Mexico, Oregon, and Illinois, bringing to 22 the number of states that have approved the platform for money movement. Fleetcor Technologies Inc., a business-payments provider, said it has now renamed …
• 22 March

  Digital Wallets: Users Are Happier, But Adoption Still Lags Among Consumers And Merchants Alike

  

  Customer satisfaction with digital wallets is on the rise, which is helping propel consumer adoption and usage, according to J.D. Power’s newly released 2024 Digital Wallet Satisfaction Study. Despite the increase in customer satisfaction, though, the study found wallets providers still have work to do to raise adoption among both …