News

January, 2016

• 14 January

  Samsung Pay Aims at Commerce Tools for Merchants And a Reseller Program for Acquirers

  Samsung Pay, the mobile wallet that uses near-field communication (NFC) and magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology, is developing a set of simple tools merchants can use to create offers and manage loyalty programs. The tools should be available this year. That’s the word from Will Graylin, global co-general manager of …
• 13 January

  Sweden’s Klarna Racks up Some Big Gains in the Early Going of Its U.S. Debut

  Sweden’s online-payments firm Klarna started operations in the United States only four months ago, but already it is making itself felt in the highly competitive business of serving U.S. e-commerce merchants. Nearly 20 retailers have signed up for the company’s streamlined checkout service, including big sellers Overstock.com and Shoes.com. That’s …
• 12 January

  Royal Canadian Mint Sells Digital-Currency Platform MintChip

  Toronto-based loyalty-services and payments start-up nanoPay Corp. has acquired the MintChip digital-currency platform from the Royal Canadian Mint, the organizations announced Tuesday. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed, but nanoPay says it could be revealed at a later date. MintChip gained fame in 2012, just as Bitcoin and other virtual currencies …
• 12 January

  Struggling With Mobile Services, Banks Risk Losing Customers to Non-Bank Rivals

  Consumers using mobile-banking sites or apps make only sporadic use of their ability to pay bills, send money to other individuals, or load a prepaid card, finds new research from Javelin LLC, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based payments-research firm. In the “2015 Mobile Banking, Smartphone, and Tablet Forecast” released Tuesday, Javelin found …
• 11 January

  Local Deals Go to School As Mega-Campus Arizona State University Opts for Apriva App

  The more than 72,000 students and faculty members of Arizona State University have a new app to help them find deals from local merchants. Dubbed ASU Deals, the app, available for iOS and Android mobile devices, enables users to search for local deals and receive notifications from merchants. Developed by …
• 11 January

  The In-App Channel Is Vital For Apple Pay, But Activity Overall Remains Weak

  The crucial role in-app payment plays in mobile-wallet usage emerged in high relief Monday in a report showing that almost one-third of all Apple Pay credit card transactions made in the last five months by surveyed consumers occurred within a merchant app rather than in a store. Over the same …
• 8 January

  Avalon Solutions Debuts Its myOmny Mobile POS App With a Reseller Program

  Sales agents at independent sales organizations and software vendors have a new mobile point-of-sale service to sell merchants. MyOmny, which is available for smart phones and tablets using iOS and Android operating systems, has launched. Developed by Dallas-based Avalon Solutions Group, myOmny is an app that merchants download to their …
• 8 January

  E-Commerce, Especially M-Commerce, Left a Big Mark on 2015’s Holiday Season

  Two reports released Friday afternoon about consumer spending in the 2015 holiday season document continued strong growth in online commerce, although one report has e-commerce falling slightly short of earlier predictions. And mobile commerce is the new star of consumer payments. In its final report about the 2015 holidays, Internet …
• 7 January

  Mobile Wallets ‘Off to a Strong Start,’ But Backers Must Work Harder at Education

  In the face of reports of generally mediocre mobile-wallet usage, a report issued this week indicates the picture may brighten soon. Thirty-nine percent of consumers have used a mobile-payments service in a store within the past year, and 73% of these have done so just within the past three months, …
• 7 January

  Blackhawk Network Shells out $120 Million for GiftCards.com And OmniCard

  Prepaid card services provider Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. has acquired GiftCards.com LLC and OmniCard LLC for $120 million, the prepaid specialists announced Wednesday. GiftCards.com specializes in selling digital and physical prepaid cards through its Web site. OmniCard sells customized prepaid incentive and rewards cards to businesses. Both entities had been …