Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
With Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payments platform launching Monday, many in the payments business are focused on the contactless technology’s potential to change in-store payments behavior. But Apple Pay works within apps, as well, opening up an even wider variety of markets for Apple, including sit-down restaurants. Harbortouch, an Allentown, …
October, 2014
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20 October
AmEx Program Aims To Kick-Start EMV Card Acceptance Among Small Businesses
By Jim Daly Among the many companies President Obama mentioned Friday as he announced that the federal government would be supporting Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip-and-PIN card payments in a big way beginning next year was American Express Co. The president disclosed that AmEx was about to launch a $10 million program …
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20 October
Apple Pay Works, But It Can’t Speed up Lines of Non-Users
The big news about my test today of Apple Pay, the contactless payment scheme for use with Apple Inc. smart phones and tablets, is that there was no big news. It worked. Each transaction on the first day of availability went through quickly, with a notification popping up on …
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17 October
Obama Uses His Bully Pulpit To Push Cybersecurity—and Endorse PIN-Based EMV
By Jim Daly President Barack Obama on Friday signed an executive order committing the federal government to offer and accept Europay-MasterCard-Visa- (EMV) chip cards. A retailer trade group quickly praised Obama for endorsing the chip-and-PIN variety of EMV when others in the payment card industry would make do with chip-and-signature …
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16 October
Cardtronics’ New Skyscraper ATMs Link a Mobile App With Merchant Rewards
Retail ATM network owner and operator Cardtronics Inc. is testing ATMs as tall as nine feet that offer discounts to consumers when they withdraw cash at stores with Cardtronics machines and then make a purchase using a smart-phone app to access the reward. The ATMs and rewards are part of …
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16 October
COMMENTARY: How Passbook Positions Apple to Command—Not Just Align With—the Payments Industry
By Rick Oglesby, Double Diamond Payments Research With Apple Pay now confirmed to launch on Monday, we are closer to seeing the impact it will have on mobile-payments acceptance, technologies, and standards. In the meantime, much of the debate concerning Apple Inc.’s payments venture has missed a crucial point. While …
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16 October
Apple Pay Goes Live Monday, As Apple, Samsung Join ETA
The date is set. Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payment scheme, now with more than 500 banks supporting it, launches Monday, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company announced Thursday. Apple Pay is a payment scheme that has two components. One, available only in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, uses a near-field …
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15 October
While Smiling on NFC, eBay’s CEO Raises Possibility of PayPal-Apple Pay Link
EBay Inc. chief executive John Donahoe on Wednesday appeared to open a door for PayPal Inc. to serve as a funding source in Apple Inc.’s new Apple Pay mobile-wallet service and to adopt near-field communication to link mobile devices with merchant points of sale. Without saying whether PayPal is actively …
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14 October
AmEx Converts Rewards Points Into Cash for Transactions at McDonald’s
American Express Co. is making it easier for its cardholders to use their points to buy a Big Mac sandwich at McDonald’s restaurants in the United States. The card issuer announced Tuesday that AmEx rewards points now can be used to pay for purchases at select McDonald’s locations with national …
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13 October
Merchant Processor TransFirst Trades Private-Equity Owners While IPO Put On Hold
Merchant acquirer TransFirst Inc. has a new owner. Private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners, San Francisco, is buying Hauppauge, N.Y.-based TransFirst for an undisclosed amount, TransFirst announced Monday. This summer, TransFirst, which has more than 200,000 merchants, had planned a partial initial public offering with its current owner, Welsh, Carson, Anderson …