In the nearly four months since it underwent a major downgrade in the incentive it offers miners, Bitcoin has seen its price rise nicely, but holders of the digital currency have not yet, at least, witnessed the wild upswing that followed the last such adjustment. Bitcoin was trading at $10,483 …
Read More »E-Commerce And Other Payment Trends Were Catching Fire Even Before Covid, a Debit Study Shows
Key payment trends now being driven by the Covid-19 pandemic were already gaining a full head of steam much earlier, according to debit card transaction data released early Monday by the Houston-based Pulse electronic funds transfer network. Stay-at-home policies and business closings starting in March drove consumers to spend online and …
Read More »FedNow Looks to Pilots Starting Next Year And Sticks to Its 2023 Or 2024 Launch Plan
While the Covid-19 pandemic has raised the issue of speeding stimulus payments and other relief to consumers and businesses, The Federal Reserve system is staying with its planned 2023 or 2024 launch date for its FedNow real-time payment service, officials said Thursday in an update that comes almost exactly one …
Read More »PayPal Plots a POS Course With QR Codes As It Comes Off the ‘Strongest’ Quarter in Its History
PayPal Holdings Inc. has made big plays for the physical point of sale before, but on Wednesday the San Jose, Calif.-based company unveiled what could be its biggest strategy yet to capture transactions at the cash register. Top executives said an arrangement under way with CVS Pharmacy to run PayPal …
Read More »Paysafe To Buy Openbucks and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/27/20
Payment processor Paysafe said it has a deal to acquire the gateway Openbucks for an undisclosed price.The Missouri Department of Social Services said it now allows child-support payments via Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal.Mogo Inc., a Canadian fintech, made publicly available MogoSpend, a so-called spending account that comes with a cobranded Visa Platinum prepaid …
Read More »A Ripple Executive Sets up a Digital Wallet for One-Click Checkout With XRP
The big card networks have been introducing a one-click e-commerce checkout and plan to take it overseas by next year, but now a Ripple Labs Inc. executive may beat them to the punch with a single-click capability for Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency. In what he characterizes as a “personal project,” Ripple director …
Read More »Google Announces Test With No Commissions for Sellers Using Its Shopping Platform
Expanding on an initiative it began April that offered free listings for some merchants, search-engine leader Google on Thursday announced a test that charges zero-percent commissions to online sellers when they sell a product through its Shopping Actions service. In addition, sellers can use Shopify Inc.’s payment service as well …
Read More »Starbucks Expands Reward-Eligible Payment Methods and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 7/21/20
Coffee king Starbucks Corp. announced new options beginning this fall for earning loyalty points, or stars, in the Starbucks Rewards program without paying with a registered Starbucks physical card or card loaded into the Starbucks mobile app. The options to be available at company-owned stores in the United States and Canada will …
Read More »Its PayPal Deal Having Expired, eBay Acts on Its Global Ambitions for Managed Payments
Free of the restraints of a legal agreement with PayPal Holdings Inc., eBay Inc. said early Monday it will now start on a global expansion of its 2-year-old managed-payments program. The program has already delivered $4.7 billion in total payment volume in the United States and Germany, the company said, …
Read More »European Commission Report Details Wealth Redistribution From Interchange Regulation
A new European Commission report shows how interchange regulation has lowered merchants’ payment card acceptance costs and taken more than $3 billion a year from card issuers’ top lines. The EC, the executive arm of the Brussels-based European Union, implemented its so-called Interchange Fee Regulation in 2015 and 2016. The …
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