Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
UnionPay, an international payment card network based in China, said it is now accepted in 183 countries and regions, with issuance outside the Chinese mainland exceeding 230 million cards in 81 countries. Issuance outside Mainland China commenced in January 2004. Consumer-finance and card issuer Synchrony said it is testing a browser extension …
January, 2024
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17 January
Launched in July, FedNow Hits the 400 Mark in Number of Participating Financial Institutions
FedNow, the real-time payments network operated by the Federal Reserve, announced late Tuesday it has 400 financial institutions participating as senders or receivers after six months of operation. The much-anticipated Fed service launched last July with 35 participating financial institutions. Participating institutions range in size from less than $500 million …
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17 January
Visa Closes Pismo Deal And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/17/24
Visa Inc. said it has closed on its acquisition of Pismo, a card-issuing and banking platform operating in Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. The announcement follows Visa’s agreement in June to acquire Pismo for $1 billion in cash. Payments-technology company Brightwell said it will implement Visa Direct to enable payouts to eligible bank accounts and …
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12 January
Despite Musk’s Bravado, X Faces an Uphill Battle in Launching Its P2P Network
Despite its formidable reach, the social-media platform X faces a steep climb to achieve its goal of launching a peer-to-peer payments service, according to payments experts. X, formerly known as Twitter, announced in a blog post earlier this week its plans to add P2P payments to its platform this year …
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10 January
BitPay Looks to Add More Than 100 New Digital Currencies to Its Payments Platform
BitPay Inc. said Tuesday it will start adding dozens of cryptocurrencies to its platform this week in a move that includes a revamp of the company’s payments service. The Atlanta-based company, which has been processing crypto-based payments for more than 10 years, said it will start supporting more than 100 …
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9 January
GoCardless Picks Up JustGiving And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1-9-24
GoCardless said it will process open-banking payments made on JustGiving, an online donation platform, replacing American Express Co. FirstOntario Credit Union said it is preparing to launch open banking through connections to Everlink Payment Services Inc. and open-banking technology platform Flinks. The federal government in Canada said in November it planned to …
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8 January
It Turns Out 2023 Was a Banner Year for Bitcoin Acceptance—Which Remains Spotty
Bitcoin has struggled for years to win breakthrough adoption among sellers large and small, even though some major, e-commerce companies like Overstock-com, Newegg.com, and Microsoft Inc. have accepted the digital currency for at least a decade. But Bitcoin’ spotty acceptance may be masking some important advances among smaller and lesser-known …
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5 January
NetCents Teams With Worldpay in an Effort to Broaden Crypto Acceptance
NetCents Technology Inc., a payment-processing gateway specializing in cryptocurrency, has partnered with the massive acquiring processor Worldpay. The deal is expected to boost adoption of cryptocurrency and stablecoins as mainstream payment options, according to NetCents. NetCents’ gateway provides corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, startups, and blockchain companies, a crypto …
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5 January
Alchemy Pay Debuts Crypto Card And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 1/5/24
Alchemy Pay, a payment gateway allowing users to exchange cryptocurrency and fiat money, launched its Crypto Card, a “mini app” backed by the user’s cryptocurrency. The promotion offers vouchers reducing the application fee to a penny from a dollar for a limited time. Fintech at Cornell has published “Cornell Convenes: Toward …
December, 2023
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20 December
A Home for Unused Gift Cards And Other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/20/23
The payouts platform Onbe said it will enable instant payment on virtual Mastercard cards to consumers who want to sell unused gift cards on the CardCash secondary gift card market. Buy now, pay later platform Affirm Inc. said it is expanding to self-checkout kiosks in more than 4,500 U.S. Walmart stores. U.S. households spend …