News

July, 2014

• 28 July

  Amazon Dongle Unconfirmed, But E-Commerce Giant Could Rely on Powerful Assets

  Amazon.com Inc. on Monday refused to comment on a report that the big online retailer is preparing to launch a mobile card reader to compete with Square Inc., PayPal Inc., and dozens of other vendors. “We can’t comment on rumors and speculation,” an Amazon.com spokesperson told Digital Transactions News by …
• 28 July

  Fearing Payment-Industry Control, Merchants Call for an ‘Open’ Tokenization Standard

    Merchant groups and payment-industry members both want to use tokenization to make it tougher for criminals to get to sensitive cardholder data, but a disagreement has erupted about the best way to do that. On Monday, the Food Marketing Institute, Merchant Advisory Group, National Association of Convenience Stores, National …
• 25 July

  Eye on Mobile: Zing’s Register Stresses Integrations; Amazon Blesses PayPal for Fire

  The arms race in the tablet-based point-of-sale market heated up on Friday with Zing’s launch of its Register application. Built for Apple Inc.’s iPad, the software-as-a-service product includes integrations with e-commerce platform Bigcommerce and email-marketing provider MailChimp on top of the expected payment-processing services. Further integrations with Intuit Inc.’s QuickBooks …
• 24 July

  Annual Wallet Payments Total More Than a Quarter Billion, According to Updated Fed Study

  Transactions using mobile wallets totaled at least 250.6 million and amounted to at least $9.5 billion in value in 2012, according to a payments report issued Thursday by the Federal Reserve. These results, part of a comprehensive update to a study released in December, represent the central bank’s first effort …
• 24 July

  Tokenization Plays the Central Role in Visa’s New Cloud Payment Suite

  Visa Inc. moved on Thursday to commercialize mobile payments using cloud-based near-field communication technology with its release of Visa Cloud Payment Solutions. A related development, the announcement of the upcoming debut of a tokenization service, is aimed at locking down cloud-based NFC and other digital payments. The new services include …
• 24 July

  Visa Sees a Digital-Payments Future, but the Present Is Still Producing Tidy Profits

  On the heels of a quarter that featured a nearly 10% increase in U.S. payment volume, Visa Inc. chief executive Charles W. Scharf signaled Thursday that the leading payment network is counting on new digital services to power future growth. Those services include the new Visa Checkout online payment service …
• 22 July

  Spurning Publicity, Amazon Launches a Mobile Wallet with Modest Features—So Far

  Without fanfare, Amazon.com Inc. last week introduced a trial version of its first digital wallet. The free Android app, known as Amazon Wallet, has been available since July 17 on Amazon’s own App Store and on Google Play. It is also available pre-installed on Amazon’s recently unveiled smart phone, the …
• 22 July

  Durbin Routing Rules Should Apply to ATMs, ATMIA Urges in Meeting with Fed

  The ATM Industry Association met today with members of the Federal Reserve staff to discuss making ATM debit transactions subject to the routing requirements of the Durbin Amendment to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. The association, which represents ATM independent sales organizations and other retail deployers, wants the provision because it …
• 21 July

  ACI To Expand Its Fraud-Protection Services Menu Through Its Acquisition of ReD

  After beefing up its bill-payment services through two acquisitions in 2013, ACI Worldwide Inc. is now turning its attention to fraud prevention. The Naples, Fla.-based payments-software firm on Monday announced that it plans to buy prominent e-commerce fraud-detection and prevention services provider Retail Decisions Plc (ReD) for $205 million in …
• 21 July

  Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s Deal for First American Underscores Profitability of Merchant Processing

    An investment consortium led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is buying First American Payment Systems L.P., a Fort Worth, Texas-based payment processor and independent sales organization, in a deal that observers say highlights the profitability of merchant processing, despite ongoing margin pressure. First American says the Toronto-based pension …