Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
By John Stewart Market signals may be mixed, but on balance the 2015 holiday season will be a merry one for plastic and digital gift cards, according to Mercator Advisory Group. The Maynard, Mass.-based research firm’s annual forecast for November and December estimates loads on closed-loop U.S. gift cards will …
Read More »First Wal-Mart. Now Target? What Retailer Wallets Mean for MCX’s CurrentC App
With Target Corp. reportedly planning its own mobile wallet, the nation’s fourth-largest retailer may some time next year join the largest, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., in launching a proprietary wallet app. That could not only add to the fragmentation of the nascent digital-wallet market, it could also indicate weakening attachment to …
Read More »E-Commerce Is Garnering a Higher Percentage of Total Holiday Sales, Says First Data
More consumers appear to be at ease shopping online, at least during the holiday season. Online sales account for 20.6% of total sales since Oct. 31, says First Data Corp. For the same period last year, e-commerce sales accounted for 17.8% of total sales. The share of retail sales attributed …
Read More »The PCI Security Standards Council Extends a Key Encryption Deadline by Two Years
By John Stewart Acting in response to comment from the industry, the PCI Security Standards Council has extended a key security deadline for payments processors, merchants, and banks by fully two years. These players now have until June 30, 2018, to stop using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption and instead …
Read More »The Fed Is Tweaking Its Next Payments Survey To Get More Info on Fraud and Mobile Payments
In payments-industry circles, the Federal Reserve System’s triennial Payments Study is one of the most eagerly awaited documents to come out of Washington. The sweeping study tracks the use of credit, debit, and prepaid cards, checks, and other non-cash payment methods. For its next survey, due out in about a …
Read More »Facebook’s Uber Integration Relies on Braintree for Payments Within Messenger App
By Kevin Woodward Facebook Inc.’s newly launched integration of Uber, the car-hailing service, into its Messenger app relies on e-commerce-transaction processor Braintree to provide the payments connection. Facebook on Wednesday updated its Messenger communications app with a Transportation option that enables users to request a ride from a car service …
Read More »Global Payments’ $4.3 Billion Heartland Deal Points up Industry Shift to Integrated Payments
When Global Payments Inc.’s chief executive, Jeffrey S. Sloan, called his counterpart at Heartland Payment Systems Inc., Robert O. Carr, a couple of months ago, he had in mind the potential for a massive acquisition in the acquiring business. But, in making that call, he also took the latest step, …
Read More »As Mobile P2P Grows, It’s Winning Adoption With a Broad Range of Age Groups
The low cost and convenience of peer-to-peer payments may be ready to cannibalize a portion of the traditional wire-transfer market, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. The report also finds that mobile P2P is important to all consumers, not just Millennials, often considered the most likely …
Read More »Despite the Rapid Rise of E-Payments, Cash Remains Stubbornly Popular Worldwide
By John Stewart n If, as the saying goes, cash is king, it’s clinging stubbornly to its throne. Despite the emergence of e-commerce and the secular rise of payment cards around the world, cash usage is growing nearly as fast globally as cashless payments, according to a report released this …
Read More »Global Payments To Buy Heartland in $4.3 Billion Cash-And-Stock Deal
Confirming rumors that have been rife for days, merchant acquirer Global Payments Inc. announced late Tuesday that it will buy smaller rival Heartland Payment Systems Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $4.3 billion. At $100 per share, the deal represents an 18% premium over Heartland’s closing share price Tuesday. …
Read More »