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ANNOUNCEMENTSFast food restaurant Burger King will expand use of MasterCard's MasterPass product by incorporating it into the Burger King mobile app in late summer 2015. Burger King's online arm, BKDelivers, was one of the original merchants to use the digital payment platform after its launch in 2013. Additionally, Firehouse Subs plans to begin accepting MasterPass at www.firehousesubs.com in the fall.
NCR Small Business launched NCR Silver Register, an all-in-one, tablet POS system that runs in the cloud and excludes third-party user applications to help maximize employee productivity and minimize security risks. The company noted that the integrated system operates on a closed Android platform and is an out-of-the-box, plug-in ready solution that enables merchants to ring up sales the same day. The system also syncs with select Apple devices to process mobile payments.
CoCard Marketing Group, a company organized, owned and managed by ISOs, launched Revonu POS. The company said the product is a complete POS solution for business with cloud-based hosting, anywhere management and anytime reporting. According to CoCard, Revonu POS helps the retail, restaurant and salon owners spend more time on business instead of managing POS activities.
First Data Corp. filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the proposed initial public offering of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered, price range and stock exchange listing for the offering have not yet been determined. The company stated it intends to use proceeds from the offering for the repayment of certain debts.
Financial services company Jack Henry & Associates Inc. was named by Celent LLC in State of Remote Deposit Capture 2015: Mobile Is the New Scanner as the market share leader in commercial desktop remote deposit capture (RDC). The RDC solution is currently installed at more than 1,000 financial institutions and 200,000 businesses and is utilized by more than 500,000 end users, the report stated.
Merchant Cash and Capital LLC and its subsidiary Bizfi originated more than $115 million in business financing in the second quarter of 2015. The number represents a 79 percent increase from the second quarter of 2014, MCC noted. "Our ability to provide more capital to business owners is a result of improved technology, shortened approval process and faster funding times," said Stephen Sheinbaum, founder of MCC and Bizfi.
The Merchants Payments Coalition claimed evidence shows that five years after the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law was passed, debit-card fees are more competitive and fairer for small merchants and consumers. "Debit reform brought some rationality to a system that made card fees merchants' fastest-growing expense," said Mallory Duncan, Chairman of the coalition's member group and Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the National Retail Federation.
Ecwid eCommerce, a solution that can be used to add online stores to multiple websites simultaneously, launched Ecwid POS-to-Online. Available to users of First Data's Clover solution, the product enables retailers with cloud-based POS systems to publish products on the web, allowing them to sell in-store and online while ensuring customer transaction information is in sync regardless of the buying channel, the company said.
NXT-ID Inc., a biometric authentication company focused on mobile commerce, filed provisional patent 62/192218 for its Personalized Tokenization System and Method. According to NXT-ID, the invention highlights next-generation payment tokenization technology that authorizes accounts and authenticates users with unique personal identifiers, including biometrics, during the generation of payment tokens.
Shopventory, provider of inventory management and retailer optimization solutions for small to midsize businesses, reported that it released Thrive, a free mobile app for retailers to monitor sales, profits, social media, user reviews, accounting, bank balances, email marketing campaigns and more. Thrive is available in the Apple iTunes Store and will be released to Android users. It is compatible with multiple mobile POS vendors and social media platforms, the company noted.
With more than 70 percent of Square Inc.'s larger customers accessing analytics daily, the company launched the Square Dashboard app to help them gain a bigger picture. The app is designed to deliver real-time data through mobile devices, and provides Square business customers with the ability to watch sales as they happen and glean information about sales summaries, sales comparisons, best selling products and location comparative volumes.
Social commerce provider Yapyzal is now allowing businesses to use their existing merchant processing accounts to sell directly from a Facebook news feed, with no charge from Yapyzal. The company said it enables businesses to design, post and share product offers on social media sites, and complete the sale using secure credit and debit card processing; all done without moving the customer away from the social media platform they originally engaged through
RESEARCHAccording to a new report titled Wearable Payments from Tractica, wearable payment transaction volume will grow from $3.1 billion in 2015 to $501.1 billion worldwide by 2020. The market intelligence firm analyzed the market for transactions made using wearable devices such as smart watches, fitness trackers and payment wristbands, and concluded wearable payments will represent approximately 20 percent of the total mobile proximity transaction volume and about 1 percent of total cashless transactions in retail by 2020.
Acuity Market Intelligence reported that mobile biometrics is expected to generate $34.6 billion in annual revenue, and the total biometric transaction volume, including both payment and nonpayment transactions, will exceed 800 million annually by 2020. According to Acuity, 35 percent of these transactions will be authenticated via biometrics embedded in mobile devices, and 65 percent of authentications will be via biometric apps downloaded by consumers.
Mercator Advisory Group's latest research note, Why PayPal Bought Xoom: Emerging Markets Opportunity Too Good to Ignore, analyzes the competitive advantages of PayPal and Xoom and argues a strong case exists for mutually beneficial synergies to be realized. Research highlights include key trends in global remittance, an analysis of Xoom's growth, review of PayPal's strategic priorities and emerging market opportunity the companies could leverage.
OpenTable released the results of its Technology and Dining Out research survey, which provides insight into what diners want from technology before, during and after the dining experience. The study explores such topics as whether googling diners before they arrive is creepy or cool and what diners think of emerging technologies like on-table touch screens and mobile payments.
In a recent report, ThreatMetrix outlined several cybersecurity strategies for e-commerce merchants to adopt now to help them maintain a positive customer experience and stay one step ahead of fraudsters during the upcoming holiday shopping boom. The report suggests retailers profile existing customers, learn from the 2014 season, create a holiday policy and tighten up security loopholes.
According to findings in a new Global Payments Insight Study conducted by ACI Worldwide, financial institution (FI) executives overwhelmingly believe the customer experience is paramount to the success of their organization. The study also concluded FIs must invest in their payment capabilities to respond to the growing importance of customer preferences and the centrality of enhanced customer experiences.
PARTNERSHIPSApriva teamed with Globalcom Engineering to provide Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) hardware to a variety of unattended markets in the United States. These include parking, car wash, banking, gaming, airline and retail kiosk and vending environments. The news follows a partnership between Apriva and parking solutions provider Amano McGann.
CardinalCommerce and Zooz are partnering to offer Cardinal Consumer Authentication (CCA) to the Zooz merchant base. With CCA, Zooz's clients will enjoy the same protection for their card-not-present transactions that Cardinal's customers already have, the companies stated. CCA incorporates what the issuer knows about the customer with what the merchant understands about that same consumer in an effort to provide a better, richer data set to make decisions and increase authorization yield.
Creditcall and payment solutions provider Lans Holdings partnered to integrate Creditcall's EMV-ready payment gateway and POS solutions with Lans Holdings' payment offerings. The pairing provides value-added resellers, independent software developers and merchants with development tools for a timely, secure and cost effective EMV migration path ahead of the Oct. 1, 2015 liability shift, the companies noted.
Kabbage Inc. expanded its platform through a strategic alliance with Experian Information Solutions Inc. As part of the collaboration, Experian will offer Kabbage's automated lending and servicing platform to its institutional clients that serve small businesses and consumers. Experian joins MasterCard Worldwide as the second global company in financial services to leverage the Kabbage platform to extend automated lending to small businesses and consumers, according to Kabbage.
MasterCard and Pay.On AG joined forces to enhance the MasterPass digital wallet solution by making MasterPass immediately available to more than 110 payment service providers via Pay.On's white label global payment gateway. The digital payment technology is now available to more than 56,000 web shops worldwide that route payments through Pay.On's partners, the companies reported.
Sequent Software Inc., a provider of mobile wallet platform as-a-service solutions, partnered with application protection company Arxan Technologies Inc. to deliver secure mobile payments for financial institutions and other organizations deploying mobile payment solutions. Sequent and Arxan are combining their joint security technologies in a new offering designed to protect Host Card Emulation-based payment service deployments from threats.
Snapcard Inc. partnered with Alpha Payments Cloud to power AlphaHub users to accept bitcoin payments globally. Through an application programming interface integration, online merchants have access to the AlphaHub platform and can add bitcoin functionality as an alternative payment method. Alpha will refer interested clients to Snapcard, and the companies will work closely together in educating merchants about bitcoin.
In addition, the ifeelgoods digital gifting platform partnered with Snapcard to include bitcoin in its rewards catalog. Through the ifeelgoods platform, companies can now create, launch and monitor campaigns and programs offering bitcoin-as-a-reward to end-users. The partnership enables these users to safely leverage bitcoin as a global rewards incentive tool for marketing promotions, loyalty programs or employee recognition programs, the companies stated.
TSheets and Square teamed up to provide more time tracking possibilities at the register for merchants. With the new TSheets and Square integration, merchant employees clock in and begin tracking their time using either the Square iPad POS or a TSheets app that can be accessed through a smartphone, tablet, mobile site or other mobile interface. Square will show the hours and transmit them to the TSheets app.
ACQUISITIONSFirst Data Corp. expanded its prepaid gift card solution with the acquisition of digital gift card company Transaction Wireless Inc. First Data stated it now provides gift card clients, distributors, partners and resellers a fully integrated, comprehensive physical and digital gift card program, in addition to its GyftTM offerings that enable consumers to buy, send, reload, manage and redeem digital gift cards using mobile devices.
Newtek Business Services Corp. acquired Premier Payments LLC as a wholly owned portfolio company. The acquisition is anticipated to expand Premier Payments' merchant processing presence with accretive to earnings beginning in the third quarter 2015. Barry Sloane, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Newtek, said, "We are thrilled to have Premier Payments as part of the Newtek Business Services Corp. family of investments."
Priority Payment Systems acquired payment processor American Credit Card Processing Corp. As part of the transaction, Priority, which was recently named by Nilson as the 20th largest merchant acquirer in the United States, will add over 9,000 new merchant accounts generating roughly $2.0 billion in annual charge volume on the Total System Services Inc. platform, the companies reported.
Cloud-based bill payment processor TIO Networks Corp. entered into an arm's length agreement to acquire Softgate Systems Inc., a provider of consumer retail bill payment solutions. The acquisition is expected to close in 2015, subject to satisfying applicable regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. According to TIO, the total value of the transaction is approximately $31 million.
APPOINTMENTSThe Electronic Transactions Association hired seasoned public affairs professional Mary Albert as its new Director of Regulatory Affairs. Albert joins the ETA at a time of immense growth for the association, with more than 50 new technology companies joining in the last year. ETA noted that it now advocates before state regulators, federal courts, and more than a dozen federal technology and financial industry regulatory agencies.
Net Element Inc. appointed David Chester as the new CEO of its U.S. subsidiary, Unified Payments. Chester joins the company with 30 years of experience in the payments field and long standing relationships with sponsoring banks, national retailers, direct marketers, e-commerce companies, ISOs and national catalogers. Chester most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer of JetPay.
The Federal Reserve selected steering committee members for the Faster Payments Task Force and Secure Payments Task Force described in the Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payment System paper. Representatives were elected by the membership to represent stakeholder categories, with two appointments made by the Federal Reserve task force chair on each task force, to ensure stakeholder perspectives were sufficiently represented Among the appointees to the Faster Payments Task Force are Janet Estep, NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association; Peter Gordon, FIS; Jordan Lampe, Dwolla Inc.; and Ryan Zaggone, Ripple Labs. Notable appointees to the Secure Payments Task Force include Dave Faoro, Verifone Inc.; Terrence Griffin, CO-OP Financial Services; Victoria Strayer, TSYS; and Matt Wilcox, Fiserv. A full list of appointees can be found at www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/other/20150721a.htm.
Virtual Piggy Inc. welcomed the return of Scott McPherson, the original Chief Financial Officer of Virtual Piggy, to resume the CFO position full-time. McPherson brings with him 20 years of CFO experience with private and public companies. "Scott has stayed connected to Virtual Piggy over the last two years and knows our business inside out," said Dr. Jo Webber, CEO and founder of Virtual Piggy.
The Strawhecker Group promoted Mike Strawhecker to Principal and equity partner. Over the past nine years, Strawhecker has contributed to TSG's product and service offerings, staff management and marketing oversight; he has also served as an adviser on the majority of TSG consulting projects. As part of this advancement, he will also join TSG's board of directors.
International Bancard hired Steve Ventura as its Senior Vice President of Partner Development. Ventura brings 20 years of business, sales and partnership experience to International Bancard. In this role, Ventura will work with International Bancard executives to advance the company's strategic relationships, with the goal of driving lead generation opportunities.
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