On the eve of his company’s separation from long-time parent eBay Inc., PayPal Inc.’s new chief executive on Thursday let it be known he intends to dramatically boost usage among PayPal’s 169 million active accounts by stressing single-touch checkouts and new capabilities like Xoom, the online-remittance service it is buying …
Read More »Eye on Earnings: Chase, Wells Report Latest Merchant-Acquiring Numbers
JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported Tuesday that charge volume in its massive merchant-processing business grew 12% in the second quarter, and Wells Fargo & Co. said its merchant-related fee income rose 10%. New York City-based JPMorgan Chase said payment volume in its Chase Commerce Solutions unit totaled $234.1 billion versus $209 …
Read More »First Data Bulks up in Digital Gift Cards with Its Transaction Wireless Deal
First Data Corp. has added another digital gift card company to its portfolio with the purchase announced Tuesday of Transaction Wireless Inc., a digital gift card distribution company. The purchase of San Diego-based Transaction Wireless complements First Data’s 2014 deal to buy Gyft, a digital platform that enables consumers buy, …
Read More »Bitcoin Revisits $300-Plus Territory as Greece Grapples With Stringent Bailout Plans
The price of Bitcoin, which has languished under $300 for more than six months, briefly shot past that milestone over the weekend, only to close lower in trading later Sunday. The digital currency, which traded well over $600 a year ago before beginning a slide that saw it plunge below …
Read More »Bipartisan Senate Bill Would Ease Marijuana Businesses’ Access to Banking Services
A bill introduced Thursday with bipartisan backing in the U.S. Senate would prevent federal regulators from cracking down on banks that provide financial services to legal marijuana businesses. The bill, similar to one pending in the House of Representatives, aims to rectify the lack of access many recreational and medicinal …
Read More »Not Your Father’s ISO: How Tech Is Forcing Acquirers To Make a Crucial Choice
By John Stewart When the Internet, and then mobile and cloud-based technology, began to radically change the acquiring business, some independent sales organizations thought they could adapt by becoming software companies without changing the way they do business. They were wrong, and that mistake is costing them dearly, argues Rick …
Read More »As the Spinoff Looms, Investors Eagerly Await Unlocked Value in the Post-eBay PayPal
By Jim Daly Next week’s planned split of PayPal from parent company eBay Inc. has payments investors anticipating that plenty of locked-up value and growth opportunities will be released for the online payments leader. PayPal began trading on a so-called “when-issued” basis Monday on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the …
Read More »The CFPB Weighs in With Guidelines to Protect Consumers Using Faster Payments
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday issued nine guidelines summarizing its vision for faster payments as banks, payment processors, tech companies, and other government regulators continue work on proposals for improving U.S. payments. “Companies developing new financial technologies should be building systems from the outset with consumer protections …
Read More »Smart Phones Increase Dominant Grip on Mobile Payments, Adyen Report Shows
Smart phones continue to dominate mobile payments made by consumers, garnering 64.1% of all such mobile transactions in the second quarter of 2015, reports the Adyen Mobile Payments Index. That’s an increase from 61.8% in the first quarter, and handily bests mobile transactions made with tablets. The use of tablets …
Read More »Credit Card Volume Gains in Resurgent Economy, as Debit Card Use Trails
Credit card use, even in merchant categories dominated by debit cards, appears to be growing quicker than debit card use, reports the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia in a whitepaper released Monday. The report finds that, from 2007 through 2012, credit cards’ share of payments increased 5% at gas stations …
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