Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
By Jim Daly Tests of alternative payments and smart-phone apps are in the cards for the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The Bureau has excised more than 90% of the paper from its payments processes but still must traverse a difficult “last mile” to become a nearly …
April, 2015
-
23 April
New Costs Imposed on Banks by Same-Day ACH Could Reshape Pricing Approach
By John Stewart Merchants that use the automated clearing house network to accept transactions may not be happy about a new fee expected to be part of a proposed same-day settlement plan, but the plan will impose significant new costs on financial institutions as well. And those costs could reshape …
-
21 April
Costco Gets a Lift by Adding Card Acceptance to Food Courts
By Jim Daly Warehouse retailer Costco Wholesale Corp. has been in the news recently because it is replacing American Express Co. with Visa Inc. and Citigroup Inc. as its major-brand payment card partners. But a little-noticed change in its U.S. stores’ food courts shows what can happen when a retailer adds …
-
21 April
How New York Transformed from an 18th-Century Laggard Into a Payments Leader
It isn’t often that a municipality is recognized for its work in the payments space. But that’s what happened Tuesday when NACHA, governing body of the automated clearing house network, gave a New York City department its George Mitchell Payments System Excellence Award for transforming the city’s decentralized, inefficient and …
-
21 April
Confluence of Trends Creating a “Golden Age” for Merchant Portfolios?
The allure of recurring revenue combined with low interest rates and investors prospecting for new assets are contributing to a potentially prosperous time for sellers of merchant portfolios. That’s the assessment from a presentation Tuesday at the Southeast Acquirers Association annual conference in New Orleans. Also, the Electronic Transactions Association …
-
20 April
Non-Bank Rivals, Lack of Account Coverage Haunt Growing Real-Time Trend
A panel of two bankers and a banking-services provider gave an upbeat appraisal Monday of industry moves toward real-time payments, but indicated financial institutions still have a long way to go to serve customer demand and meet competitive thrusts from non-bank players. “We’ve got more work to do,” said Roy …
-
19 April
Will Increasing Regulation of the Acquiring Industry Abroad Affect the U.S. Market?
By Jim Daly The Canadian government’s move last week to strengthen its Code of Conduct for the payment card industry and the European Union’s approval in March of rock-bottom interchange rates for credit and debit cards has observers wondering if more regulation is in store for the U.S. merchant-acquiring industry. …
-
17 April
Retailers Eye EMV as a Near-Term Reason for POS System Upgrades
Retailers will take their time upgrading their point-of-sale systems for compatibility with the EMV chip card standards, finds EKN Research’s “2015 Retail Point-of-Sale Blueprint” report. Only a minority of retailers—mostly the largest ones—will be ready by Oct. 1, though within two years 70% of them will be ready for the …
-
17 April
Despite Its Woes, AmEx Manages To Report Respectable First-Quarter Financials
By Jim Daly Coming off a winter of discontent, American Express Co. late Thursday reported some respectable financial results for the first quarter. The loss of its relationships with Costco Wholesale Corp. in Canada, however, affected charge volumes, a prelude to the loss of Costco as a merchant acceptor and …
-
17 April
Wearables Users More Likely to Use Digital Banking And Mobile Wallets, Research Says
Apple Inc. and American Express Co. may be catching a wave. Users of wearable technology like fitness bands and smart watches—the kind of gadgets AmEx and Apple are mixing with payments and financial services—are not only younger and wealthier than owners of smart phones and tablets, they’re also more likely …