Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Tokens, that is, tokens for securing electronic payments, almost became a household word two weeks ago when Apple Inc. introduced Apple Pay, a mobile-payments service that will rely heavily on tokens when it launches next month. The concept of tokenization, however, has been around for quite some time in the …
Read More »Cobrin Steps Aside As AnywhereCommerce CEO to Focus on a New Cloud-Based Gateway
Mitch Cobrin, who has run AnywhereCommerce Inc. as chief executive for the last four-and-a-half years, has stepped aside for a new chief executive but will continue at the company in the role of founder, board member, and “chief catalyst,” he tells Digital Transactions News. The management change comes as the …
Read More »More Small Businesses Use Mobile Devices for Payments, Raising Security Issues
More than a fifth of small and mid-sized businesses use mobile devices to accept payments, almost twice the rate of mobile acceptance two years ago, but all too few of those businesses are concerned about payment security, according to new findings from ControlScan Inc. According to the survey of 6,186 …
Read More »Apple Pay: No Charge for Merchants, But Transaction-Security Fees for Issuers
Apple Inc.’s introduction of its new Apple Pay service for its soon-to-be released iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch raised a huge number of questions in the payments industry. One of the biggest topics of speculation is just how is Apple going to make money from the service, with combines …
Read More »Braintree’s Decision to Support Bitcoin Pushes Currency Farther Toward Legitimacy
Braintree Inc.’s arrangement to allow its merchants to accept Bitcoin could significantly further a nascent trend among big merchants to take the digital money. Braintree, which PayPal Inc. acquired a year ago for $800 million, processes payments for such fast-growing merchants as house-rental service Airbnb, restaurant-reservation site OpenTable, and taxi alternative …
Read More »Twitter Launches M-Commerce Test With a ‘Buy’ Button and 28 Partners
In its latest move toward becoming a force in electronic payments, social network Twitter Inc. reported Monday that it is starting a test allowing members to make purchases via tweets from 28 partners that include merchants, rock bands and non-profits. “For a small percentage of U.S. users (that will grow …
Read More »Visa’s Test Results: Record Peak Volume And Expected Smooth Sailing for Tokens
Visa Inc. can now process a peak volume of 56,000 messages per second—a record high—and foresees no glitches resulting from a new card-number masking technology expected to go into production some time this fall. Visa arrived at these results upon completing an annual stress test earlier this month in anticipation …
Read More »Mobile, POS Payments-Tech M&A Drives Overall Tech Deals to New Global Highs
Deals for financial and payments technology companies drove worldwide merger-and-acquisition activity in the technology sector to new highs in the second quarter, according to a report released on Thursday. n Transactions for payments and financial technologies firms was especially heavy in the second quarter. The quarter’s 60 deals exceeded the …
Read More »Square Attempts to Quell Some of Amazon’s Thunder With Post Dispelling ‘Myths’
In a recent blog post, Square Inc. is attempting to counter some of the attention foisted on Amazon.com Inc. after the announcement last week of Local Register, the online retailer’s mobile point-of-sale service, by dispelling the “top 10 myths” about Square’s service. Local Register enables retailers to accept payment …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Amazon, Square, Groupon, and the Death of mPOS
This week, Amazon launched Amazon Local Register, the mobile POS (mPOS) solution that may well kill mPOS solutions. That’s not to say that they won’t exist anymore, but it is to say that mPOS as a value proposition in and of itself is really going to struggle moving forward. Square, …
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