In an effort to reach occasional and very small sellers struggling with restrictions imposed to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic, PayPal Holdings Inc. on Tuesday launched a Quick Response code capability for its mobile app. The feature allows a buyer to scan a QR code displayed by a seller …
Read More »WooCommerce Payments Debuts and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 5/19/20
E-commerce facilitator WooCommerce launched WooCommerce Payments to provide checkout and payments-management capability for merchants on its platform. Transaction fees start at 2.9% plus 30 cents for U.S.-issued cards.ACI Worldwide Inc. announced Wundr Group Ltd., a retail payments platform specializing in cross-border transactions, will use ACI’s UP eCommerce Payments technology, which links to card-transaction …
Read More »With a Planned IPO, Could Shift4 Be Looking at a Big Rebound Following the Ravages of Covid-19?
The middle of a pandemic is an intriguing time to tap the public markets, to say the least, but observers say there could be some upside ultimately for Shift4 Payments LLC, which on Friday filed its expected registration statement for an initial public offering. The Allentown, Pa.-based payments-technology provider, which …
Read More »Recovery in Card Usage Gathers Steam Among Credit-Union Members
Even though credit card spending is still depressed as a result of the Covid-19 economic downturn, payment card volume trends have now been improving for a month or more, according to new data from credit-union service organization PSCU. St. Petersburg, Fla.-based PSCU reported Monday that overall credit card spending by …
Read More »27% of Consumers Late on a Bill and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 5/18/20
Twenty-seven percent of U.S. consumers are past due on an at least one bill and nearly 50% will need a year to catch up on bills because of the Covid-19 pandemic, finds a study from YouGov and ACI Worldwide Inc. Of the nearly 1,400 surveyed, 81% said their mortgages and 78% said …
Read More »How Covid-19’s Economic Slowdown Is Disrupting Payments M&A
In the wake of 2019’s major merger-and-acquisition activity in the payments industry, the impact of Covid-19 is affecting the timing of deals, capital availability, and the due diligence process. That’s the assessment from panelists in the “M&A Trends in a Pandemic World” session at Transact Connect, the Electronic Transactions Association’s …
Read More »Retail Sales Slump 16% in April and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 5/15/20
The U.S. Commerce Department’s Census Bureau issued advance estimates for April’s seasonally adjusted retail and food-services sales totaling $403.9 billion, down 16.4% from March and off 21.6% from April 2019.In one indication of the toll the slumping economy is taking on consumers, store card issuer and processor Alliance Data said its overall delinquency rate …
Read More »Priority Technology’s Sales Machine Kept Humming Even While Payment Volume Plunged 27%
It was a nasty April for Priority Technology Holdings Inc. as the Covid-19 business downturn tightened its grip, but the merchant acquirer is looking to integrated payments and other growth areas to soften the blow. “In the month of April we processed roughly $2.7 billion in volume, which was down …
Read More »Mastercard Says New Data Show Spending Headed Toward ‘Normalization Phase’
New network data from Mastercard Inc. show U.S. switched volume is off 6% year-over-year for the week ending May 7 compared with a 26% decline in the week ending April 30. Mastercard on Thursday released two more weeks of network data, for the weeks ending May 7 and April 28, …
Read More »In the Time of Covid-19, Risk And Underwriting Practices Must Adapt, Experts Say
Payments providers and acquirers are having to quickly adjust to evolving risk practices as chargeback volume and return rates change during the nationwide Covid-19 containment. That’s important because the Federal Trade Commission, in particular, is using these two metrics as potential indicators of misdeeds, advised panelists Wednesday in the “Regulatory …
Read More »