Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
By Jim Daly Mocapay Inc., one of the nation’s pioneers in mobile payments, hopes to expand its small footprint through a new distribution agreement announced this week with Merchant Link, a gateway and data-security service owned by JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s merchant-acquiring unit, Chase Paymentech. Founded in 2007, Denver-based Mocapay …
Read More »Search Results for: gift card
Here Come the Bitcoin ATMs
Enthusiasts are betting Bitcoin ATMs will be the next step in taking the digital currency from monetary curiosity to mainstream acceptance. Since the first Bitcoins were mined in 2008, evangelists for the fledgling digital currency have dreamed of making Bitcoin as ubiquitous as dollar bills. To say the least, the …
Read More »Theft of Users’ Email Addresses Overshadows MCX’s Attempt To Blunt ‘Misinformed’ Comment
By Jim Daly and Kevin Woodward Just hours after Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX), the retailer-backed developer of the CurrentC mobile-payments service, posted a response to reports about some of its members dumping Apple Inc.’s rival Apple Pay service, the company notified customers that “unauthorized third parties” had obtained email …
Read More »Cover Story: Is it Still Hip to Be Square?
Is it Still Hip to Be Square? The answer, after five eventful years, is yes. But it needs to find a consumer strategy, and right now there’s no app for that. Nobody in the staid world of the payments business had ever seen anything like it before. Dozens of buttoned-down …
Read More »Spurning Publicity, Amazon Launches a Mobile Wallet with Modest Features—So Far
Without fanfare, Amazon.com Inc. last week introduced a trial version of its first digital wallet. The free Android app, known as Amazon Wallet, has been available since July 17 on Amazon’s own App Store and on Google Play. It is also available pre-installed on Amazon’s recently unveiled smart phone, the …
Read More »ACI To Expand Its Fraud-Protection Services Menu Through Its Acquisition of ReD
After beefing up its bill-payment services through two acquisitions in 2013, ACI Worldwide Inc. is now turning its attention to fraud prevention. The Naples, Fla.-based payments-software firm on Monday announced that it plans to buy prominent e-commerce fraud-detection and prevention services provider Retail Decisions Plc (ReD) for $205 million in …
Read More »Visa Revamps Its Online Wallet, And Gives It a New Name: Visa Checkout
Visa Inc. says its new online payment service, Visa Checkout, should help improve conversion rates for e-commerce retailers by making it easier for consumers to pay. The service, available in the United States, Canada and Australia, enables consumers to pay online on any device, Visa says. Visa Checkout replaces the …
Read More »Cover Story: Annual Field Guide to Alternative Payments
Our Guide spotlights how mobile payments and digital currency drive payments innovation. by John Stewart, Jim Daly, and Kevin Woodward Alternative payment schemes are becoming almost too numerous to count. A few months back, one payments-industry veteran listed all the mobile wallets he knew of and came up with about …
Read More »Cover Story: Prepaid’s Big Makeover
Prepaid card program managers and issuers are moving beyond their original customer base and ramping up offerings, producing intense competition and falling prices. By Jane Adler Shopped at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. lately? A trip past the checkout lane reveals a robust array of new prepaid card offerings. For example, Wal-Mart’s …
Read More »Loop Mobile Wallet Debuts With Expectation of Near Ubiquitous Acceptance
Loop, a mobile wallet that uses a case or fob to generate its own contactless field to communicate with many payment terminals, has launched for the latest iPhone models. The brainchild of payments veterans George Wallner, founder of point-of-sale terminal maker Hypercom Corp., now Equinox Payments LLC, and Will …
Read More »