Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
- Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. will raise interchange rates for online merchants starting next month, while also lowering the rates for some small-merchant categories, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Mastercard’s fee changes alone will result in a net increase of about $330 million yearly, according to the Journal story, citing an estimate from CMSPi, a consulting firm.
- The Discover Network said it has suspended efforts it had underway to establish a Russian branch office. Otherwise, the network said it and Diners Club have no active partners in Russia or Belarus, no cards are issued in these countries, and there is no acceptance of Discover, Diners Club, or Pulse. The announcement comes in the wake of efforts by major card networks to halt operations in Russia following that country’s invasion of Ukraine.
- The Dollar General retail chain said it has added a buy now, pay later test program from BNPL provider Sezzle Inc. as well as card-rewards payments options supported by FIS Worldpay.
- Payment-card manufacturer CPI Card Group Inc. reported net sales in the fourth quarter of 2021 grew 11% year-over-year to $93.2 million, with debit and credit card net sales up by the same percentage to $77.4 million. Prepaid card sales increased 6% to $15.9 million. Sales were driven by the shift to higher-price contactless cards, among other factors, the company said.
- E-commerce payments specialist Digital River Inc. reported an increase of 142% in deals closed in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2020. For the full year, the company signed 62.5% more clients than in 2020. Digital River says it can now support shipments for clients from 249 markets globally.
- Payments provider Synchrony Financial said holders of its Synchrony Car Care credit card can use the card to pay for electric-vehicle charging. There are now more than 45,000 public EV charging stations in the United States, Synchrony says, citing data from the U.S. Department of Energy.
- POSaBIT Systems Corp., a specialist in payments processing for the cannabis market, entered the cannabidiol (CBD) market with a point-of-sale platform. The technology is live in more than 20 brick-and-mortar CBD locations nationally. CBD is a chemical derived from the cannabis sativa plant.
- Insurance-claims payments specialist One Inc said its ClaimsPay platform has been selected by Hastings Mutual Insurance Co. for outbound payments processing.
- Real-time payments platform Pidgin announced it is available to financial institutions and other organizations looking for support for faster payments.
- Parking-app provider Passport Inc. appointed Brian Pagels senior vice president for sales and Bengt Horsma senior vice president for payments. Pagels most recently was with CentralSquare Technologies. Horsma comes to the company from Synchrony Financial.
Related Articles
Check Also
Mastercard Beefs Up Its Cyber Defenses With Its Recorded Future Acquisition
Mastercard Inc. announced early Thursday it has acquired cybersecurity firm Recorded Future for $2.65 billion. …