News

February, 2024

• 6 February

  More Salvos Emerge in the Battle Over a Credit Card Networking Bill

  

  Proponents and opponents of the Credit Card Competition Act continue to press their respective cases for passage and rejection of the CCCA by Congress. Late Monday, the Merchants Payments Coalition fired the latest salvo in its campaign to pass the CCCA, a television commercial that literally shows a consumer getting …
• 6 February

  Fiserv Logs Robust Results in Its Merchant Unit As Its Clover Tech Surges Ahead

  

  Fiserv Inc., already a behemoth in merchant processing, is preparing to straddle its twin pillars of acquiring-bank relationships, on the one hand, and its own acquiring operations through a Georgia bank charter, on the other. The charter, which the big processor applied for last month, has “a very specific purpose,” …
• 6 February

  Affinipay’s Tap-to-Pay Play And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/6/24

  

  AffiniPay, a specialist in payments for professional offices, launched a refreshed version of its In-Person-Payments service featuring new payments devices that include tap-to-pay functionality. Fiserv Inc.’s Small Business Index for January remained unchanged from December at 138. Year-over-year sales grew 1.7%, down from December’s 2.6% rate. The Index, introduced in January, measures …
• 5 February

  Fleet Card Startup AtoB Signs an Exclusive Network Deal With Mastercard

  

  AtoB, a 4-year-old payments platform for the trucking industry, announced Monday that Mastercard Inc. will be the exclusive network for its commercial card program. AtoB’s platform provides such tools as fleet cards, direct-deposit payroll, and access to bank accounts. The San Francisco-based fintech’s fuel card offers discounts of up to …
• 5 February

  A Bad Start to the Year: Ransomware Spikes 130% in January

  

  Already, 2024 is starting off with an unrelenting wave of ransomware attacks. The number of attacks last month, as registered by cybersecurity firm BlackFog, increased 130% from January 2023. Cheyenne, Wyo.-based BlackFog says the 76 attacks noted this January are the second-highest it has ever recorded. The highest number came …
• 5 February

  Speedy Payouts Most Favored Among Bettors And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/5/24

  

  Sports-betting enthusiasts rank rapid payouts and payment choice most highly when choosing a sportsbook, according to a report from Paysafe Ltd., a payments processor for which gaming is a major market. The research canvassed 3,000 bettors in six states, Canada, and the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy in December. Airwallex, …
• 2 February

  Cantaloupe Makes a Play for Stadium Pay With a $4.75 Million Deal for Cheq

  

  Cantaloupe Inc., a provider of cashless payment technology for the self-service market, has acquired Cheq Inc. for $4.75 million, Cantaloupe announced late Thursday. Cheq is a payments and ordering platform for sports, entertainment, and hospitality venues.  With the acquisition, Malvern, Pa.-based Cantaloupe can enter what has become in recent years …
• 2 February

  A New Abrigo Program Enlists AI to Counter Growing Check Fraud

  

  In testing now, the Abrigo Fraud Detection platform is incorporating artificial intelligence into check inspection and image analysis to help banks manage check fraud. Though checks written fell from 15.5 billion in 2018 to 12 billion in 2021, according to the 2022 Federal Reserve Payments Study, they remain a significant …
• 2 February

  Apple Revenue up 11% And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/2/24

  

  Apple Inc. reported record quarterly revenue of $23.1 billion in its Services unit, up 11% year-over-year, including an all-time high for payments revenue, which Apple did not break out in its December quarter results. This subcategory includes revenue from processing for stores, Apple Pay, and iOS apps. Cannabis wholesale platform Nabis …
• 1 February

  High Costs And Fraud Risk Drive Sellers’ Dissatisfaction With Card Processing, J.D. Power Finds

  

  Small businesses tend to be less satisfied with their credit and debit card processing than they are with processing for alternative payments, according to a study by J.D. Power. Based on a 1,000-point scale, with 1,000 being the highest score, merchant-satisfaction scores for credit card processing averaged 692, while scores …