Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
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January, 2012
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26 January
Shazam Announces Network-Wide Availability of Mobile Acceptance Including PIN Debit
The Shazam electronic funds transfer network on Wednesday announced it is making available across its network a mobile-payments service that lets stores, tradesmen, and other merchants accept PIN-debit transactions as well as credit and signature-debit payments. With the rollout, the service is available to nearly 1,500 member financial institutions and …
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26 January
How Banks’ PR Fiascoes Compromise Their Ability to Recoup Revenue Lost to Durbin
The banks’ defeat on the Durbin Amendment—followed by their hamhanded efforts to recover lost revenue with explicit debit card fees—may have done more than tarnish their image with consumers. It may also have damaged their ability to deploy revenue-generating programs linked to debit cards, according to Beth Robertson, director of …
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25 January
Eye on Prepaid: NetSpend Nets 7-Eleven for Distribution; Green Dot Buys a Processor
Prepaid card program manager NetSpend Holdings Inc. beefed up its retail distribution channels through a new agreement announced on Wednesday with leading convenience-store chain 7-Eleven Inc. The news came just a day after NetSpend rival Green Dot Corp. revealed that it bought assets from eCommLink Inc. that will advance its …
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24 January
With No Credit Card Cushion, TCF Sees Debit Card Revenue Drop 51%
Yet another big debit card issuer, TCF Financial Corp., weighed in with results from the first full quarter of Durbin Amendment debit card interchange price controls, and they weren’t pretty. The Wayzata, Minn.-based regional bank said on Tuesday that card revenue fell 51% to $13.6 million in the fourth quarter …
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24 January
Web Merchants See Fraudulent-Order Rate Fall, But the Good News Comes at a High Cost
Online merchants made some progress last year against fraud, but the fight is becoming more and more expensive for them in terms of both dollar losses and operational costs, according to a report issued on Tuesday. Indeed, the news for e-commerce sellers is mixed at best. While fraudulent orders as …
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23 January
Fraud From Euronet Breach Hits Mag-Stripe Cards, Spares EMV Chip Cards
Payment processor Euronet Worldwide Inc. reported on Monday that part of its European businesses sustained a computer security breach late last year. The disclosure is of interest to the U.S. payments industry as it moves slowly toward adoption of EMV chip cards because most European cards have both a chip …
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19 January
Holiday Post-Mortems Show Healthy Volume Gains, Sagging Average Tickets, Shift to Debit
The post mortems on the holiday shopping season are arriving from major processors, and the emerging picture appears to be one of strong consumer spending but drooping average tickets online, in physical stores, and on merchant-branded gift cards. At least one report also found a switch in consumer preferences in …
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19 January
The Durbin Amendment’s Early Toll on Big Banks: $1.1 Billion And Counting
Ouch. The Durbin Amendment, which slapped debit card interchange price controls on big banks beginning Oct.1, cost some of the nation’s largest financial institutions more than $1.1 billion in reduced fourth-quarter revenue. Digital Transactions News calculated that figure based on what seven national or large regional banks disclosed over …
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19 January
Though Zappos Case Gets ’12 off to Gloomy Start, Number of Card Records Breached Fell in 2011
Despite a seemingly non-stop parade of headlines about data breaches last year, the number of credit and debit card records compromised actually fell, according to new figures from the Identity Theft Resource Center. The ITRC says it identified 111 data breaches that exposed 3.38 million records in 2011. n In …