Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
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 …
January, 2012
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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 …
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18 January
Protests Might Remove Acquirers From the Online Piracy Fray
The Internet revolt over bills in the U.S. House and Senate aimed at thwarting online piracy might have a welcome side effect for merchant acquirers in possibly getting them out of an unwanted role as deputies charged with enforcing public policy. The online encyclopedia Wikipedia captured international headlines Wednesday when …
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18 January
PayPal’s Home Depot POS Pilot Set to Expand to 51 Stores, eBay Chief Says
San Jose, Calif.-based PayPal Inc. later this week will expand its five-store point-of-sale payments pilot with Home Depot to 51 stores, chiefly in the San Francisco Bay area, according to John Donahoe, chief executive of eBay Inc., PayPal’s parent company, and interim president of PayPal. Speaking during a fourth-quarter conference …
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17 January
Marching to the Point of Sale, PayPal Strikes Its First Terminal Agreement
n Ingenico has been piloting PayPal acceptance for six months, Greg Burch, director of business development at the terminal vendor, tells Digital Transactions News. Burch refuses to name the merchant involved in the pilot, but news emerged last week that Home Depot, which uses Ingenico devices, is testing PayPal …
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12 January
PayPal Says It Did $4 Billion in Mobile Volume in 2011, Projects $7 Billion for This Year
PayPal Inc. on Wednesday projected its mobile-payments volume this year will reach $7 billion, nearly doubling the $4 billion it now says its mobile service processed in 2011. The final number for last year came in significantly higher than the $3.5 billion PayPal was estimating late in the year and …
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12 January
Virtual Currencies Not Yet Ready for Prime Time, Though Facebook Credits Could Be Close
The Internet, especially through online gaming and social networks, has spawned a number of new electronic currencies. Are any of these ready to make the leap into general usage, the way dollars and pounds and euros and yen are today? That was the fascinating question raised this week at a …
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11 January
An FTC Settlement Highlights Regulators’ Concerns with Third-Party Risk
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10 January
Intuit Plants GoPayment’s Flag in Canada and Upgrades Its Card Reader
Intuit Inc. plans to export its GoPayment service to Canada in the next few months, beating out rival Square Inc. as both companies prepare for international expansion of their smart-phone-based payment services aimed at the smallest of merchants. Intuit also is rolling out a new card reader for mobile devices, …