The story of debit cards in the pandemic year of 2020 turns out to have several chapters—including higher average tickets, a sharp swing to card-not-present usage, a dramatic surge in contactless adoption, and higher mobile-wallet usage. Meanwhile, account-to-account transfers turned out to be the fastest-growing form of debit, though usage …
Read More »Apple Cash Adds Mastercard Debit Support and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 8/6/21
Apple Inc. said Apple Cash users can now send Instant Transfer payments to Mastercard Inc. debit cards, reported 9to5mac.com. The service had been compatible only with Visa Inc. debit cards prior to Thursday’s announcement. Apple also said it is charging a 1.5% fee for Instant Transfer transactions, up from 1%. Instant Transfer …
Read More »Mastercard Outlines a Strong Quarter As It Pursues Strategies in Crypto, 5G, And Open Banking
As they have for rival Visa Inc., transaction volumes are continuing to improve for Mastercard Inc. as world commerce stages its recovery from the impact of the pandemic. “The strong momentum we started the year with accelerated this quarter,” chief executive Michael Miebach said Thursday morning during a session with …
Read More »Global Payments Launches TSYS Partner Program and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/14/21
Payments provider Global Payments Inc. announced consulting firm PwC will be a charter member of Global’s TSYS Partner Program, an initiative aimed at developing business partnerships with companies globally.CloudPay Inc., a payroll-processing provider, launched CloudPay Now, a service allowing multinational companies to provide earned-wage access globally.InComm Payments will process prepaid card transactions online …
Read More »And Then There Were Two: Colorado’s Passage of Surcharge Law Leaves Massachusetts and Connecticut As Only States With Surcharge Bans
With Colorado Governor Jared Polis signing Senate Bill 21-091, repealing the state’s ban on credit card surcharging, Colorado has a surcharging law that not only ensures proper disclosure about surcharges to consumers, but mirrors the surcharging rules implemented by Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. The new law, signed by Polis …
Read More »June Retail Sales up 11% and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/8/21
U.S. retail sales increased 11% in June from June 2020, according to the latest Mastercard Inc. SpendingPulse report. They were up 10.4% compared to June 2019. E-commerce sales increased 8.3% year-over-year and were up 95% over June 2019.Payments provider Paysafe Ltd. launched a program that lets travel businesses accepting consumer payments to use a …
Read More »BlocPal And OneFeather Team to Deliver Services Via Mobile Wallets to Canada’s Indigenous People
As part of its goal to provide unbanked and underbanked consumers affordable digital access to financial services through a single application, BlocPal International Inc. has partnered with OneFeather, a Victoria, British Columbia-based provider of digital services to indigenous people in Canada, to introduce the OneFeather app in that country. The …
Read More »Through an Expanded Walmart MoneyCard, Green Dot Sharpens Its Focus on Banking Services
Green Dot Corp. has been steadily building its product roster in financial services for the underbanked, with the latest development emerging this week in the form of an expanded focus for the 15-year-old Walmart MoneyCard. The prepaid card, issued by Green Dot Bank and branded by Mastercard or Visa, can …
Read More »236% Uptick in Entertainment Purchases and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/17/21
Credit union service organization PSCU released its June edition of the PSCU Payments Index that found purchases made with debit cards in the entertainment category increased 236% in April over April 2020 and by 208% for credit cards.Cardtronics plc said CVS Health is enabling the ATM operator’s Allpoint network of surcharge-free ATMs at …
Read More »LG Pay To Shut Down and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/3/21
Not quite two years old, LG Pay, the mobile payment service from LG Electronics USA, is shutting down, according to a report on Droid-Life.com. It captured a screenshot of an alert declaring the service will be phased out and discontinued “over the remainder of 2021.” In April, LG announced it was exiting …
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