Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• Dissident shareholder Harvest Capital Strategies LLC, owner of 7.8% of prepaid card provider Green Dot Corp., nominated three director candidates for election at Green Dot’s upcoming annual shareholder meeting. Green Dot issued a statement saying it had recently offered Harvest Capital the opportunity to appoint one director immediately and …
March, 2016
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14 March
Venmo Blogs About Security Policies After Keywords Trigger Transaction Delays
PayPal Holdings Inc.’s popular Venmo person-to-person payments service posted a review of the company’s anti-money-laundering and related security policies Sunday in the wake of transaction reviews triggered by certain keywords in Venmo messages that have slowed down the payments process. “There has been recent discussion around specific keywords associated with …
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14 March
Coinstar and Redbox Parent Firm Outerwall Looking at Strategic Alternatives
Its original Coinstar coin-counting business long overshadowed by its once-booming but now fading Redbox DVD and video-game rental business, Outerwall Inc. on Monday announced that it had hired investment banker Morgan Stanley & Co. “to explore strategic and financial alternatives” for Outerwall shareholders. The company simultaneously announced that would double …
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14 March
Jet Capital Picks Integrity Payment Systems and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• Merchant processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc. announced an integration of its Portico Gateway with Computop Paygate in an arrangement that will give Heartland merchants access to international payments. Heartland is set to be acquired this spring by Global Payments Inc. in a $4.3 billion cash-and-stock deal announced in December. …
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11 March
Visa Checkout Button Updated and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• Visa Inc. unveiled a new interactive button for its Visa Checkout online and mobile commerce service that allows shoppers to complete an online purchase by sliding a virtual image of their credit, debit or prepaid card across the screen of a smart phone, tablet, or laptop. • Visa will have its …
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11 March
Vantiv Exec Warns About E-Commerce Declines As EMV Cards Proliferate
The U.S. payments industry’s transition to EMV chip cards has produced a number of side issues, but few may be more pressing for card-not-present merchants than the failed authorizations caused by the ongoing replacement of as many as 1.6 billion credit and debit cards. The new EMV cards carry …
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10 March
Gift Card Provider SVM Buys 1to1 Card and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• In-store mobile payments made with wallets enabled with near-field communication will total nearly $240 billion worldwide by 2021 as mobile-wallet competition intensifies and the contactless-payment infrastructure matures, predicts researcher Strategy Analytics. • Closed-loop gift card provider SVM LP acquired 1to1 Card, a prepaid card management-services firm for incentive, loyalty and …
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10 March
VeriFone’s U.S. EMV Focus Shifts From Large Retailers to Other Merchant Sectors
Multilane retailers provided much of the revenue lift that payment-acceptance hardware and software provider VeriFone Systems Inc. has enjoyed for the past couple of years as the U.S. prepped for the Oct. 1, 2015, EMV liability shift, but many of the big retailers have now completed their EMV purchases. Yet …
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9 March
Pamela Joseph Named TSYS President and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• The nation’s movement toward faster payments took a step forward with Early Warning LLC’s announcement that it is now processing real-time peer-to-peer payments for Bank of America Corp. and U.S. Bancorp. Customers of these banks can send payments via mobile or online banking apps to other customers of either …
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9 March
The Fed’s Payment System Improvement Task Forces Give a Progress Report
Some two-and-a-half years after it started, the Federal Reserve’s project to make U.S. payments faster and more secure is laying the groundwork for private industry to come up with something better than the mishmash that U.S. payments are today, but tangible results still could be years away. Fed officials and others …