News

August, 2015

• 26 August

  Blackhawk Study on E-Gift Cards Shows Why Competition Is Heating up

  Electronic gift cards are becoming more popular with consumers, and potentially creating more sales at retailers, finds a new survey from Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. That will likely mean competition for consumers will heat up as merchants and processors look to cash in. Mercator Advisory Group, which follows the gift …
• 26 August

  Eye on Wall Street: First Data Names IPO Underwriters; Worldpay in Play?

  Payment processor First Data Corp. on Tuesday named a big cast of underwriters for its planned initial public offering of stock. Meanwhile, a German processor reportedly is joining private-equity firms in making a play for United Kingdom-based Worldpay Ltd., which is one of the world’s largest merchant acquirers and has …
• 26 August

  COMMENTARY: Get Ready for EMV’s Longer—And Different—Transactions

  With all the attention being given to the upcoming EMV liability-shift deadline on Oct. 1 in the United States, one important issue is getting overlooked. That’s the effect new chip cards and EMV software and equipment will have on the customer experience. According to a recent report on EMV from …
• 26 August

  How Buy Buttons And Single-Click Tech Are Driving Commerce on Smart Phones

  By John Stewart Larger screens, buy buttons, and streamlined checkouts are expected to combine to raise the profile of smart phones in e-commerce. And now there are numbers to show just how much retail sales volume the devices will generate. Smart phones will account for $27.7 billion in retail mobile …
• 25 August

  Global Payments Will Use Apriva’s EMV mPOS Apps for Android and iOS Devices

  Atlanta-based merchant processor Global Payments Inc. will use mobile point-of-sale apps from Apriva Inc. to service its merchants wanting EMV-capable mPOS, Apriva announced Tuesday. The deal sees the AprivaPay Plus app, available for iOS and Android devices, branded with the Global Payments name. Such branded, or white-labeled, agreements enable companies …
• 24 August

  Education—of Consumers and Merchants—Is Now a Crucial Goal For U.S. EMV Rollout

  As the Oct. 1 EMV liability-shift date nears, and consumers begin receiving even more credit and debit cards bearing EMV chips, educating them and merchants on how the cards are used takes on even greater importance. Just last week, Target Corp. introduced a video and a series of questions-and-answers explaining …
• 24 August

  Payments Companies Gashed in Bloody Wall Street Rout

  Publicly traded payments companies fared slightly worse than the major market indexes Monday in a continuation of a Wall Street selloff triggered by investor worries about China’s economic situation, overvaluation of securities, and the future of U.S. interest rates. Fifty companies tracked by Digital Transactions News fell 4.03% from Friday’s …
• 21 August

  Peril of New Chargebacks Could Bring EMV Into Focus for Unaware Merchants

  A significant chunk—44%—of small-business owners have no knowledge of the EMV liability shift coming Oct. 1. That finding from “Small Business EMV Readiness,” a report released by Javelin Strategy & Research this week, suggests that many might be in for a shock when their merchant-processing statements arrive in November and …
• 21 August

  Illinois Drops Money-Transmitter Licensure Case Against Square

  While many payments firms have complained about the expensive and time-consuming process of getting state money-transmitter licenses, and, more recently, of potentially needing licenses to operate virtual currencies, the regulatory pendulum occasionally swings the other way. Late last month, Illinois quietly dropped a 2013 cease-and-desist order against merchant processor Square …
• 21 August

  In This High-Stakes Poker Game, Verizon Holds More Cards Than Samsung

  By John Stewart Why won’t Verizon Wireless make nice with Samsung Pay? With the U.S. debut of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s mobile-payments service just a few days away—and a national launch of Samsung Pay due Sept. 28—all the major mobile network operators have signed on to support the service with …