Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
No one can say for sure why the price of Bitcoin has dived sharply since the turn of the year, but that doesn’t mean market observers don’t have theories. These range from rampant short selling to the hack last week at Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp, in which crooks siphoned out $5.2 …
Read More »NACHA Opens Comment Period for Its New Proposal to Launch Same-Day ACH Settlement
NACHA on Tuesday opened for comment a sweeping proposal to introduce a same-day settlement mechanism for the automated clearing house network. The comment period will run through Feb. 6, the regulatory body for the ACH announced. If the proposal is approved, the ACH network will process almost 1.4 billion same-day …
Read More »Though Under a Cloud of Doubts, Bitcoin Marches Past 100,000 Mark in Daily Transactions
While governments and established payments networks around the world reckon with Bitcoin, the upstart digital currency has itself had to reckon this year with volatility that has seen its price plunge about 50% since its $700-plus January high. But in other respects, Bitcoin is riding high. One of the latest …
Read More »The Value of Words: How Contract Terms Affect Portfolio Valuation
When negotiating a merchant-portfolio acquisition, buyers and sellers may want to examine more than the usual terms and conditions for elements that could affect the value, and potential, of the portfolio, advises an analyst. While there are obvious terms to look for, such as those directly related to ownership …
Read More »As Mobile P2P Builds Momentum, Services May Struggle to Cash in
By John Stewart The advent of younger users, combined with the rise of smart phones and a much-improved user experience, is helping to drive a surge in mobile person-to-person payments. But providers still haven’t figured out how to make money on the service, which lets consumers use smart phones to …
Read More »Issuers’ Apple Pay Pact Assigns Remarkable Authority to Card Networks As Well As Apple
Issuers signing up to have their cards included in the Apple Pay wallet may benefit from all the hype Apple Inc. is generating for the new mobile-payment service. But behind the scenes, the 500 or so financial institutions that have enlisted in the program so far are also signing up …
Read More »How Smoothie King’s King-Size iPad Play Could Open the Gates for Tablet POS
In what appears to be the largest tablet-based point-of-sale deployment yet, the entire 700-store Smoothie King Franchises Inc. chain will convert to a system from San Francisco-based Revel Systems Inc. The Covington, La.-based chain, which sells blended drinks, snacks, and supplements, is replacing existing checkout registers with Apple iPads linked …
Read More »The Fed Will Leave Its Debit Card Interchange Cap Unchanged for Now
The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday said it would leave its debit card interchange cap for large issuers unchanged despite finding that some of their important expenses either declined last year or had changed little from levels found by an earlier survey. A major retailer trade group said the findings …
Read More »Apple Pay: No Charge for Merchants, But Transaction-Security Fees for Issuers
Apple Inc.’s introduction of its new Apple Pay service for its soon-to-be released iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch raised a huge number of questions in the payments industry. One of the biggest topics of speculation is just how is Apple going to make money from the service, with combines …
Read More »Looking To Expand Beyond Digital Markets, Boku Gets a Read on Magazine Subscriptions
Ever since the carrier-billing model for mobile payments found a foothold in the digital-goods market several years ago, processors have tested various tactics to broaden the range of goods the model could be applied to. The latest example is San Francisco-based Boku Inc. and its announcement Thursday that it will …
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