Merchants selling digital goods were dealt a heavy blow last year as the fraud rate for the category soared 167%, finds the Fraud Attack Index from online-fraud prevention specialist Forter and the Merchant Risk Council, a merchant group that addresses fraud prevention. Released Tuesday, the index also found that account …
Read More »TrustCommerce Announces an Integration and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/27/18
Captiva MVP Restaurant Partners LLC, operator of the PDQ fast-casual chain, reported that a hacker accessed its computer system through a technology vendor’s “remote connection tool” and may have compromised an undisclosed quantity of payment card numbers, cardholder names, expiration dates, and verification values. The breach, which affected all but three …
Read More »Venmo’s New Debit Card Is About More Than Cashing in on Interchange Fees
While the opportunity to earn interchange on transactions made on its new Venmo debit card seemingly answers the oft-asked question of how PayPal Holdings Inc. plans to leverage its free peer-to-peer payment service, the full answer runs much deeper. Interchange is only one piece of the puzzle. A much larger …
Read More »The Supreme Court’s Controversial Balancing Act in the AmEx Anti-Steering Case
With its Monday decision upholding American Express Co.’s anti-steering rules, the U.S. Supreme Court unleashed a tide of press speculation about just how payment card pricing, rewards, and network rules will be affected. At this point, however, only a few things are clear. The first is that AmEx chief executive …
Read More »A Safe Harbor Rejection Won’t Raise Risks for Banks Looking to Serve Cannabis Merchants
Financial institutions providing banking services to cannabis businesses in states where marijuana has been legalized are no more at risk of being punished by federal regulators than they were before Congress last week rejected legislation to provide them safe harbor. Legislators in the House of Representatives and the Senate separately …
Read More »Incomm Partners with CheckFreePay and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/26/18
Bill.com announced that, at more than $52 billion, it has surpassed the $50-billion mark in bill payments processed annually for more than 3 million small-business clients. Prepaid specialist Incomm announced it is working with CheckFreePay Corp., a unit of Fiserv Inc., on a cash-based bill-payment service in store checkout lanes. …
Read More »Alipay Launches a Wallet-Based Cross-Border Money-Transfer Service Using Blockchain
Payments observers wondering when, and where, blockchain technology would take hold may want to pay close attention to cross-border remittances. Alipay Payment Services (HK) Ltd. said on Monday that it has launched a mobile-wallet based money-transfer service between Hong Kong and the Philippines using a blockchain backbone. The service, which …
Read More »A Divided Supreme Court Upholds AmEx’s Anti-Steering Rules
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that American Express Co.’s anti-steering rules for merchants do not violate federal antitrust law. The conservative majority’s decision, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, caps a case that dates back to 2010 and involves merchants who wanted to steer merchants to …
Read More »Worldnet TPS Completes Apple Pay Certification and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/25/18
VyStar Credit Union joined the Cardtronics plc network, enabling its members to have fee-free access at more than 20,000 Cardtronics ATMs. ATM operator Prineta LLC said it is the new ATM vendor at the Renaissance Columbus Westerville-Polaris Hotel in Columbus, Ohio. Payments provider Worldnet TPS Ltd. said it has completed …
Read More »Consumers Increasingly Pay Billers Directly Rather Than Through Bank Sites
Payment volume through biller-direct Web sites continues to grow at the expense of bank bill-pay sites, according to new findings from Boston-based Aite Group LLC. Some 73% of the online bill payments made by consumers in 2016 went through biller-direct sites, up from 62% in 2010, according to Aite. Meanwhile, …
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