News

November, 2014

• 11 November

  Launched in May, Square Capital Has Advanced $75 Million to 15,000 Square Sellers

  Square Inc.’s 6-month-old cash-advance product, Square Capital, has distributed $75 million to some 15,000 small businesses, the San Francisco-based payments company announced via Twitter this week. Further, merchants that have accepted the advances have processed in excess of $1 billion in sales through Square, the company said. It also pointed …
• 11 November

  Smart Phone and Tablet Users Use Weak Security Measures: Report

    Consumers using smart phones and tablets based on Android, iOS and Windows Mobile operating systems tend to have lax security measures in place, finds a report commissioned by authentication vendor Nok Nok Labs. Google Inc. developed Android. Apple Inc. created iOS for its mobile devices, and Microsoft Corp. owns Windows …
• 10 November

  Report: Booming E-Commerce Will Make CNP Fraud Soar, Not Conversion to EMV

  With a critical deadline coming up in less than a year, it has become a common observation about the U.S. conversion to the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card standard that transaction fraud prevented by EMV will simply move into e-commerce channels. Now, a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research argues …
• 10 November

  Shipping Costs Deter Online Buyers the Most, While Social Nets, Apps, Not Big Factors

  Surprise shipping costs are the leading cause of shopping-cart abandonment. Meanwhile, shopping apps are popular, but not used as much as you might think. And while social networks have grown in popularity every year, they have a surprisingly small influence on e-commerce buying decisions. n Asked what factors cause them …
• 10 November

  Visa Enhanced PCI Compliance Push Slated For Jan. 1 Start

  n Card network Visa Inc. plans to eke out even better merchant compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard with a new enforcement plan targeting the largest merchants. The program is scheduled for a Jan. 1 start. That’s according to a copy of an Oct. 21 Visa Bulletin …
• 10 November

  Eye on M&A: JetPay Buys ACI Merchant Systems; Heartland Completes Xpient Acquisition

  Payment processor JetPay Corp. on Monday reported that it had acquired ACI Merchant Systems LLC, an independent sales organization that works through financial institutions to provide credit and debit card processing to their small and mid-sized business customers. Meanwhile, the big merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. recently bought Xpient …
• 7 November

  Giant Eagle Reverses Spiraling Transaction Costs With Durbin-Assisted Rate Arbitrage

  The Durbin Amendment may be best known for its stringent ceiling on debit card interchange, but merchants are discovering that another part of the law that requires transaction-routing choices can be just as effective as rate caps in controlling processing costs. Giant Eagle Inc., a Pittsburgh-based supermarket chain operating nearly …
• 6 November

  BitPay’s Mobile Wallet App Features One-Tap Payment

  Bitcoin merchant-services provider BitPay Inc. has launched an app to enable one-tap Bitcoin payment at the point of sale. Dubbed Bitcoin Checkout, the app is available now for smart phones and tablets using Android. An iOS version is planned for Apple Inc. devices. The app, when loaded onto a smart phone …
• 6 November

  Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Shut Down Alleged Drug Site Silk Road 2.0 That Used Bitcoins

    Federal law enforcement agencies said Thursday they arrested the person they allege ran a Web site devoted to the buying and selling of illegal drugs using the virtual currency known as Bitcoin. Officials with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the FBI and the Homeland …
• 6 November

  MasterCard To Expand Its DataCash Gateway Services With TNS Acquisition

  By Jim Daly MasterCard Inc. announced Thursday that it has a deal to buy gateway businesses from TNS Inc. that will expand the global footprint of its DataCash e-commerce subsidiary. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close by year’s end, were not disclosed. The sale includes two units …