ANNOUNCEMENTSThe ATM Industry Association published Meet the People Behind the ATM You Use Every Day, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ATM as well as ATMIA's 20th anniversary. The ebook is a compilation of dynamic stories told by a variety of people and companies active in both ATMIA and the ATM industry which were published by the association throughout the past year, ATMIA stated.
In December 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau extended the timeline to amend certain aspects of the CFPB prepaid rule governing prepaid accounts. "As part of that process, the Bureau expects, based on its review of the comments received, to further extend the effective day of the 2016 rule to allow additional time for implementation of the final rule," the CFPB wrote. The bureau proposed the rule changes in June 2017; the comment period ended in August.
The NFC Forum Board of Directors approved a membership upgrade for Infineon Technologies AG from Principal to Sponsor. Sponsor level is the top tier of NFC Forum membership; it entitles an organization to a seat on the NFC Forum Board of Directors, the consortium's governing body, and to run for officer positions. A Principal member of the NFC Forum since 2005, Infineon will now be able to take a greater leadership role in the organization, NFC technology development and deliverables, the forum noted.
Mastercard SpendingPulse reported that holiday sales increased 4.9 percent in 2017, setting a new record for dollars spent. This is the largest year-over-year increase since 2011 and a further indication of consumer confidence, Mastercard noted, adding that online shopping also saw gains of 18.1 percent compared to 2016, boosted by a late season rally. Sarah Quinlan, Senior Vice President of Market Insights at Mastercard, said, "The strong U.S. economy was a contributing factor, but we also have to recognize that retailers who tried new strategies to engage holiday shoppers were the beneficiaries of this sales increase."
RESEARCHAbout 80 percent of ATMs were expected to be chip-enabled entering 2018, according to the U.S. Payments Forum. Its just released EMV Troubleshooting Guide for ATM Owners and Operators offers timely advice on transaction issues frequently encountered. The paper presents best practices to ensure data integrity and monitor transaction activity, as well as troubleshooting tips for managing fallback, declined transactions and chip transaction reversals.
Based on Federal Reserve Payments Study: 2017 Annual Supplement data, the number of credit card payments increased 10.2 percent in 2016 at 37.3 billion payments totaling $3.27 trillion, a trend attributed to continued strength in remote payments for online purchases and bill payment. The supplemental data also found 19.1 percent of in-person general-purpose card payments were EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) chip-enabled in 2016 compared to 2.0 percent in 2015.
An Auriemma Consulting Group parallel study of U.S. and U.K. cardholder mobile payment adoption, satisfaction and comfort levels found 90 percent of users in both geographies were satisfied with their mobile payment apps. U.K. users had a slight advantage in terms of contactless payment usage and U.S. users ranked higher for mobile wallet engagement.
"UK consumers were introduced to contactless payments in 2007," said Jaclyn Holmes, Director of Auriemma Payment Insights. "Their increased comfort with this technology, in the decade since its inception, makes payment behavior at the point of sale less of a barrier for mobile pay adoption." She noted that a direct correlation exists between comfort with online mobile purchases and mobile wallet usage.
Miami-based Net Element Inc. launched a blockchain-focused business unit, and partnered with Bunker Capital to develop and deploy blockchain technology-based solutions that connect merchants with consumers. Net Element CEO Oleg Firer said the new division will add transparency and compliance assurance for investors and enhance its value-added services for the more than 20 million electronic commerce clients who are part of the Net Element network.
According to Mercator Advisory Group's 2018 Payments and Banking Outlooks, after an abrupt decline in U.S. debit card transaction volume in early 2017, push payments have reversed this trend and will likely continue to do so. Brian Riley, Director of Credit Advisory Service at Mercator, believes 2018 will be a year for U.S. credit card issuers to tighten up lending and build on existing customer relationships as U.S. credit card account volumes and revolving debt return to peak levels.
PARTNERSHIPSBanco Sabadell (Sabadell) and EVO Payments International finalized a seven-year strategic partnership in which EVO will provide its products and services to Sabadell's merchant customers. EVO's payment solutions will be marketed through Sabadell's retail branch network in Mexico and by corporate banking representatives. The partnership is expected to enhance Sabadell's merchant offerings and strengthen its position as a financial solutions provider.
Retail finance platform Divido and Digital River Inc., a global provider of commerce-as-a-service solutions, formed a partnership that will enable Digital River ecommerce clients to offer instant, interest-free finance to online customers. "Consumers are increasingly looking for flexibility and control in how they pay online, particularly for high-ticket items," said Eric Christensen, Vice President of Product, Payments, Fraud and Financial Services at Digital River.
Merchant Centric inked an agreement to offer customer intelligence and reputation management to Heartland Commerce's 135,000 restaurant customers. The combined offering will enable local businesses to understand social media's impact on sales, the companies said. "By combining their sales transaction data and social feedback, Heartland clients are a step ahead of their competition in taking control of their businesses' success," said Christopher Sebes, President of Heartland.
Recurly Inc. and Adyen joined forces to fuel international expansion for subscription businesses, integrating Adyen's global commerce platform with Recurly's enterprise-grade subscription management platform. "Global subscription businesses require a payment processing partner equipped to handle the unique requirements of cross-border commerce," said Dan Burkhart, CEO of Recurly. "The Recurly and Adyen partnership provides a distinctive set of capabilities for subscription businesses to rapidly expand their offerings outside the continental U.S. market."
Visa Inc. and Perch Security are working to deliver Visa Threat Intelligence (VTI) to a broad base of merchants. VTI is an enterprise security offering designed for businesses that accept, store and process payment data. "It provides high-quality, low-false-positive and breach-validated Indicators of Compromise (IoC), along with expertly curated threat analysis, to help security operations detect and protect against attacks targeting payment data," the partners stated. Under the agreement, Perch will provide VTI subscribers with tools needed to consume intelligence data automatically.
ACQUISITIONSGalway, Ireland-based Fintrax Group Holdings Ltd. completed the acquisition of Long Beach, N.Y.-based Planet Payment Inc., fulfilling a tender offer by Fintrax affiliate, Fintrax US Acquisition Subsidiary Inc., for all outstanding shares of Planet Payment common stock at a price of $4.50 per share and Series A Preferred Stock at $13.725 per share. As a result of the merger, Planet Payment will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Fintrax and its common stock will cease to be traded on The NASDAQ Stock Market.
The $1.05 billion all-cash sale of Cayan LLC to Total System Services Inc., expected to close in Q1 2018, marked the largest U.S. merchant acquiring acquisition of 2017, according to Financial Technology Partners LP, who served as sole strategic and financial advisor to Cayan in the transaction. "FT Partners met Cayan in 2011, initially advising on its growth recap with Parthenon Capital in 2012 and has continued advising Cayan through its significant rebranding efforts and on a number of interim strategic acquisitions," said Steve McLaughlin, Managing Partner at FT Partners.
APPOINTMENTSDr. Ronald Black and Larry Klane were recently appointed to Verifone's Board of Directors. Dr. Black currently serves as President, CEO and board member at Rambus Inc., and as director of Energy Focus Inc., Microfabrica Inc. and FlexEnable Ltd. Klane serves as co-founding Principal at Pivot Investment Partners LLC, a firm that invests in fintech and financial service companies.
The ETA elected its 2018 Board of Directors, Officers and Presidential Advisory Council. Bank of America Merchant Services CEO Tim Tynan will serve as Chairman of the Board and ETA President, Anovia Payments' Kevin Jones as President-Elect, Vantiv's Christine Lee as Treasurer, Elavon's Guy Harris as Secretary and Global Payments' Jeff Sloan as Immediate President. Verifone North America's Joe Mach and First American Payment Systems' Neil Randel became newly elected directors, eight existing board members will continue to serve as directors and eight ETA members were appointed as presidential advisors.
The PCI Security Standards Council named Lance J. Johnson as Executive Director, effective January 2018. In his new role, Johnson will drive the organization's strategy and oversee senior leadership in implementing it. Johnson most recently served as Chief Operating Officer at Sequent Software Inc. and prior to that spent 20 years as a senior leader at Visa Inc. where he directed global risk management and security, fraud detection and control, and global payment data and device security efforts.
Recondo Technology, a cloud-based revenue cycle management provider, hired Craig Niemiec as its new Chief Financial Officer. Niemiec brings decades of accomplishments acquired from financial leadership positions at such companies as McKesson Technology, Alltel, Electronic Data Services and iMDSoft, and specializes in building teams that relentlessly drive topline growth and cost reductions, Recondo stated. 
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