As the new year eases well into its second month, here are five important technology developments that will shake up key payments markets in 2018. B2B payments will finally go digital Perhaps further behind in the fintech curve than they should be are business-to-business payments. This is often attributed to …
Read More »March of the Cryptos: All of the Top 10 Digital Currencies Rise This Week
The stock market may have tumbled this week, but cryptocurrencies are enjoying a generalized comeback. All of the 10 largest currencies by market capitalization are up since early in the week, with third-ranked Ripple’s XRP token surging 20% just since late Thursday to lead the pack, according to Coinmarketcap.com. It …
Read More »Two Sides of the Same Coin? Surcharging And Cash Discounts Puzzle Some in Acquiring
Curiosity, and a bit of confusion, about what constitutes credit card surcharging and cash-discount programs surfaced this week at the Northeast Acquirers Association annual conference in Uncasville, Conn. During a panel discussion about the benefits and challenges of credit card surcharging and cash-discount programs for merchants, participants explained how their …
Read More »Bitcoin Transaction Fees Ease off Sharply, But How Long Will the Trend Last?
Long confirmation times and hefty transaction fees have pushed some Bitcoin backers to back away from the digital currency in recent weeks, but now there are signs that one of those problems is easing significantly while the other is growing much worse. The median transaction fee stood at $5.69 as …
Read More »The Democratization of Bitcoin: An ATM Network Appeals to Average Joes
Bitcoin may have slipped from the near $20,000 price it commanded a little over a month ago, but it’s still selling for around $11,000, nearly a dozen times its value a year ago. That’s drawing in plenty of investors and other high rollers, but it’s also attracting average citizens, including …
Read More »How a Drive for Revenue Puts Pressure on AmEx’s Average Global Discount Rate
Unlike its rivals Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc., American Express Inc. depends crucially on revenue from the fees it charges merchants for acceptance. These fees, in fact, account for 57% of the company’s overall revenues net of interest expense. So it came as no surprise that AmEx’s top brass spent …
Read More »Bitcoin Plunges 50%-Plus in 30 Days As a General Rout Slashes Values for Cryptocurrencies
In what may be a case of easy come, easy go, Bitcoin and more than a score of other cryptocurrencies are shedding value fast. Since peaking near $20,000 on Dec. 17, Bitcoin’s price has plummeted more than 50%. It stood at $9,650 at mid-morning Wednesday, down more than $2,000 in …
Read More »A Sluggish Uptake for Mobile Payments Opens a Door for Tech-Oriented Payment Cards
When major technology companies started launching mobile-payments services a few years ago, many observers figured digitized and tokenized card credentials would soon replace old-fashioned plastic. But now, the chronically sluggish adoption and usage rates these mobile wallets have registered is lending new life to plastic cards. The twist is that …
Read More »Eye on Banks: Chase’s Merchant Volume Hit $1.2 Trillion in 2017; Debit Purchases Rise 6% at Wells
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by assets and the biggest bank that runs its own merchant-acquiring operation, reported Friday that it processed $1.19 trillion in payment volume from merchants last year, up 12% from $1.06 trillion in 2016. Chase’s merchant volume rose 13% in 2017’s fourth quarter …
Read More »Programming Flaws, Volatility, And Sky-High Fees Bedevil Bitcoin Acceptance
While most payments executives have been fascinated by the spectacular year-long rise—and recent crash—in the value of Bitcoin, merchants that accept the cryptocurrency continue to struggle with a wide range of vexing issues. Overstock.com, one of the first merchants to accept Bitcoin, this week had to fix a programming flaw …
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