News

January, 2017

• 18 January

  Opinions Vary Greatly About the OCC’s Proposed Fintech Bank Charter

  

  The Electronic Transactions Association went on record Tuesday supporting the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s proposed limited-purpose national bank charter for financial technology companies, but a national trade group of small banks “expressed strong concerns” about the idea. The opinions expressed by the ETA and the Independent Community …
• 18 January

  ACI Makes Real-Time Connections and other Digital Transactions New briefs

  • The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority has accepted in principle a number of proposals Mastercard Inc. has made to dispel concerns the agency expressed earlier this month about the planned $920 million merger of Mastercard and the U.K.-based payments-technology firm VocaLink. The CMA had been concerned that the merger would hand Mastercard …
• 18 January

  Clearent Buying Payment Alliance International’s Merchant Services Division

  

  Payments provider Clearent LLC is buying Payment Alliance International’s merchant-services division, which serves more than 17,000 merchants, for an undisclosed amount, Clearent announced Wednesday. The deal adds $4.2 billion in processing volume to Clearent, pushing the combined entity’s total processing volume to $14 billion and its total number of merchants …
• 17 January

  For Online Retailers, Holiday Sales Were Up, But So Was Attempted Fraud, Report Shows

  

  The bill continues to come due for the frenzy of orders online merchants processed over the holidays. While card-not-present transactions were up 16% for the holiday season compared to the same period in 2015, fraud attempts increased fully 31%, according to data released Tuesday by ACI Worldwide, a Naples, Fla.-based …
• 17 January

  Retailers Adapt to Growing Consumer Reliance on Mobile Apps, Sites, and Devices

  

  Retailers wondering about the role of smart phones in their stores might take this figure into account: 36% of U.S. shoppers purchase via a mobile device frequently, and consider it a part of their regular purchasing behavior. That’s the finding from a recent DMI Inc. survey. DMI is a Bethesda, …
• 17 January

  iPayment Finalizes Refinancing and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • Merchant processor iPayment Inc., along with its parent company iPayment Holdings Inc., announced a refinancing with holders of its senior secured notes that company officials say should result in a “substantial deleveraging” of the company and enable it to add services and products. • Equinox Payments LLC said it supports Android Pay …
• 17 January

  Retail ATM Operator Cardtronics Expands Its Business With Walgreens and Citibank

  

  Leading retail ATM network owner and operator Cardtronics plc announced expanded agreements Tuesday with the big drug-store chain Walgreens and banking giant Citigroup Inc. that will put Citi’s brand on more than 1,000 Cardtronics ATMs in Walgreens and Duane Reade stores in some key markets, including New York City and …
• 16 January

  Currency Or Investment Vehicle? Rising Bitcoin Value Outshines Its Payments Role

  

  The price of Bitcoin, which soared to heady heights at the end of 2016 only to drop somewhat over the last two weeks, has been much on the minds of payments observers looking to the digital currency as an intriguing new way to pay. But is Bitcoin a medium of …
• 16 January

  Terminal Makers Unleash a Variety of Product And Service Introductions As NRF Opens

  

  Point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico Group is among many payments companies making announcements Monday at the National Retail Federation’s annual Big Show in New York City. France-based Ingenico says its ePayments division and its research arm Ingenico Labs now offer payment-enabled messaging bots for e-commerce merchants. Bots are an artificial intelligence …
• 16 January

  POS Payment Options Proliferate at Annual Retailer Conference

  

  The announcements about new point-of-sale and mobile-payment systems and related services came fast and furious Monday at the National Retail Federation’s annual Big Show underway in New York City. • Samsung Electronics America, Inc. and independent sales organization Total Merchant Services Inc. announced the availability of TMS’s Groovv POS Flex, …