FinCEN Issues Email Fraud Advisory and other Digital Transactions News briefs

• Apple Inc. said it is bringing its Apple Pay mobile-payments service to Japan with its new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus smart phones, and Apple Watch Series 2. Apple Pay will work with Japan’s variant of near-field communication (NFC) contactless technology known as FeliCa.

• The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an advisory to financial institutions about business and personal email compromise fraud; since 2013, there have been 22,000 reported cases of business email fraud involving $3.1 billion, FinCEN said, citing FBI data. Such schemes often impersonate an executive’s email and instruct an unwitting subordinate to wire funds to a fraudster.

• Affirm Inc., which offers consumer financing for e-commerce transactions, announced it is launching Affirm Multiple Financing Programs, which lets online merchants tailor financing offers to specific needs, such as clearing inventory or promoting particular products.

• Clothing retailer Opening Ceremony achieved EMV compliance with a package of equipment and services from terminal maker Ingenico Group, payments gateway Shift4, and retail software vendor Multidev Technologies.

• Processor Fiserv Inc. unveiled BillMatrix Next, an electronic bill-payment service for billers of all sizes. The service enables billers to accept debit and credit cards, and automated clearing house payments via online, mobile, telephone, and walk-in channels.

• Payments advisory firm Aite Group LLC released its “Digital Wallets: Provider Strategies to Meet Customer Requirements” report that examines the impact of digital wallets in Europe.

• Entrust Datacard said more than 10.6 million EMV-enabled payment cards have been issued using its instant-issuance services in the past year in the United States.

• Allegiant, an airline specializing in connecting small cities with major hubs, launched its first cobranded rewards credit card, the Allegiant World MasterCard. Bank of America Corp. is the issuer.

• Click A Waiter Inc. updated its restaurant online-ordering platform.

• Banking hardware manufacturer Cummins Allison said the number of financial institutions using its Money Machine 2 self-service coin-counting machines has tripled since 2010.