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Gateway Enterprise Metrics (GEM)
Launched in 2016, GEM is an industry-first, independent, performance platform utilized by leading gateways in the North America payments processing market to analyze performance versus the market over time.
Click here to learn more.
GEM gateways have seen the following use cases and ROIs in the past six months, justifying their ongoing participating in GEM
- A gateway had an outage during a peak shopping period that GEM demonstrated was more significant and negatively impacted merchants more than their internal reporting indicated
- A gateway was able to provide real third-party metrics to a major dissatisfied client, which proved it was meeting its Service Level Agreement criteria, avoiding a potential penalty and improving the overall relationship
- Management was able to benchmark its gateway performance as consistently worse than market, which helped justify the business case for new technology investment into the gateway
- A gateway had a 60+ minute outage that they were not aware of during a major holiday; the gateway’s internal reporting only showed a “slowdown”
- TSG uncovered that a gateway was not properly reversing non-settled auth transactions within 72 hours and as such, a network “misuse fee” was being incurred on each of these transactions, negatively impacting merchants within their portfolio
- TSG’s “merchant boarding process” for GEM provided insights for one gateway that merchants/partners were likely having issues with during the integration process; new procedures were put in place due to TSG sharing these findings
Contact Chuck Fillinger to learn more today.
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Nancy Schrum watched curiously as a colleague from her law firm waved an iPhone above a credit-card reader to buy a Subway sandwich with Apple Pay earlier this year. “I have that, but I’m afraid to use it,” said Ms. Schrum, who feared the technology wouldn’t work. When Apple Inc. launched its mobile-payment service more than two years ago, it hoped to speed up the checkout process and, ultimately, to replace physical wallets for U.S. consumers. Apple Pay has made significant headway, but Ms. Schrum’s wariness reflects a range of factors that analysts say have caused growth to undershoot their expectations, including security concerns about the service, retailers that don’t accept it, and Apple’s relatively paltry marketing.
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Consulting firm The Strawhecker Group is out with its 2016 rankings of U.S. merchant acquirers, and they show that 240 acquirers and independent sales organizations processed more than $5 trillion in payment volume. The 10 biggest acquirers accounted for 80% of that volume. Topping the list is JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Chase Commerce Solutions, which posted $1 trillion in U.S. volume last year. Next was First Data Corp.’s direct acquiring business, with $770 billion. The next eight were: Bank of America Merchant Services, $730 billion; Vantiv Inc., $550 billion; U.S. Bancorp’s Elavon, $320 billion; Wells Fargo Merchant Services, $275 billion; Global Payments Inc. (excluding its Heartland Payment Systems and OpenEdge units), $200 billion; Citigroup Inc.’s Citi Merchant Services, $200 billion; Heartland, $130 billion; and TSYS Merchant Solutions/TransFirst, $120 billion.
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray was subjected to a barrage of accusations and innuendo by House Republicans on Wednesday, as they apparently sought to give President Trump legal justification to fire the agency head. The attacks ranged in tone and severity, often sparking heated exchanges between lawmakers and Cordray. Some criticisms were specific — that the CFPB was “asleep at the wheel” during the Wells Fargo phony-accounts scandal, and did not deserve credit for its role in the enforcement action against the bank.
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Not so long ago, enterprising thieves who wanted to steal the entire contents of an ATM had to blow it up. Today, a more discreet sort of cash-machine burglar can walk away with an ATM’s stash and leave behind only a tell-tale three-inch hole in its front panel. Researchers from the Russian security firm Kaspersky on Monday detailed a new ATM-emptying attack, one that mixes digital savvy with a very precise form of physical penetration. Kaspersky’s team has even reverse engineered and demonstrated the attack, using only a portable power drill and a $15 homemade gadget that injects malicious commands to trigger the machine’s cash dispenser.
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Jamie Walker’s growth mission as the newly anointed chief executive at Elavon Inc., the acquiring arm of U.S. Bancorp, is squarely focused on e-commerce and furthering the company’s partnerships. That isn’t to set aside its other distribution channels, such as independent sales organizations or its direct-sales efforts, Walker tells Digital Transactions News. Walker, a 16-year veteran at the Minneapolis-based banking giant, where he was chief financial officer at Elavon and chief administrative officer for U.S. Bank’s Payment Service division, moved into the CEO role in March.
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Takeover talks between Euronet Worldwide Inc. and MoneyGram International Inc. are progressing slower than expected, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring tensions between the longtime rivals as Euronet seeks to scuttle billionaire Jack Ma’s bid. Euronet was hoping for a speedy deal. Yet more than a week after entering a non-disclosure agreement to discuss its offer, it still hasn’t gotten a full peek at MoneyGram’s non-public financial data, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public.
Related: Ant Financial Publishes Open Letter to the MoneyGram Community
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President Trump has vowed to roll back financial regulation, saying that it is preventing banks from lending and businesses from growing. Wall Street, it would seem, has found its dream president. There is just one possible complication: His top advisers continue to float an idea that would not only hurt the nation’s largest banks, it would upend them. In a meeting on Wednesday with senators from both parties, Gary D. Cohn, Mr. Trump’s chief economic adviser, said the administration was considering a proposal that would require separating retail banking from investment banking and trading.
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The majority (75 per cent) of point of sale payments made in the Eurozone are cash transactions, despite the wide availability of digital payment options including mobile, the European Central Bank (ECB) revealed. In a statement announcing availability of a new €50 banknote, ECB president Mario Draghi said a study commissioned by the organisation showed the central position cash still holds in countries using the Euro. Draghi said three quarters of all payments at the point of sale – excluding remote transactions made online – were made using cash. In terms of transaction value, cash made up slightly more than half.
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When Stripe began beta testing Atlas in 2016, the service was centered around helping foreign entrepreneurs set up shop in the United States. More than a year later, the payment processing company is opening up access to American-run businesses, offering them the same building blocks to assist them in become global internet entities. Consequentially, entrepreneurs shouldn’t have to worry about applying separately for EIN and bank accounts, hiring a registered Delaware agent or a corporate attorney to manage the formation process, or anything else — Stripe Atlas takes care of all of that with a simple web form.
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JPMorgan Chase has spent nearly $600 million on financial technology solutions, CEO Jamie Dimon said in a letter to shareholders: “In 2016, we spent more than $9.5 billion in technology firmwide, of which approximately $3 billion is dedicated toward new initiatives. Of that amount, approximately $600 million is spent on emerging fintech solutions – which include building and improving digital and mobile services and partnering with fintech companies”, Dimon wrote. He explained that the bank invested so much in technology in order to “benefit customers with better, faster and often cheaper products and services, to reduce errors, and to make the firm more efficient.”
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Amazon this morning announced the launch of Amazon Cash, a new service that allows consumers to add cash to their Amazon.com balance by showing a barcode at a participating retailer, then having the cash applied immediately to their online Amazon account. The service will support adding any amount between $15 and $500 in a single transaction, Amazon says. Amazon Cash will be available at brick-and-mortar retailers across the U.S., including CVS Pharmacy, Speedway, Sheetz, Kum & Go, D&W Fresh Market, Family Fare Supermarkets, and VG’s Grocery. Other stores will be added in the future.
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Japan’s legal classification of bitcoin as a payment method is set to trigger a bitcoin boom in adoption as retailers make haste to accept the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. Late last year, Japanese officials took the formal decision to end the 8% consumption tax rate imposed on bitcoin buying through digital currency exchanges. On April 1, 2017, Japan officially recognized bitcoin as a method of payment.
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Facebook wants to use artificial intelligence to help improve your private messages. Messenger, Facebook’s standalone messaging app, will now use artificial intelligence to suggest things to users based on their private conversations. The feature — which Facebook says is a version of its personal assistant technology called M — can do things like suggest you book an Uber or prompt you to send money to a friend based on whatever it is you’re talking about.
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Yik Yak, the once high-flying anonymous social network based on college campuses, appears to be heading toward its end. Payments company Square is in talks to acquire the company, sources tell The Verge. If a deal is reached, sources said, it’s likely to be structured as a so-called “acquihire,” in which Square acquires Yik Yak’s employees but does not continue to develop its technology. News that the company was seeking a buyer was first reported Tuesday by Fortune.
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Eyeo, the parent company of Adblock Plus, has acquired the micropayment company Flattr, following a year-long collaboration period. "We share almost identical values of making the Internet safe and fair for everyone," said Flattr cofounder Peter Sunde in a press release about the acquisition. "We’re excited to continue our work on the Flattr project to give back control to the users of the internet. They should decide how they want to use the internet and how they want to support the content they enjoy."
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Malware and ransomware are becoming an increasing threat to banks, but preventing such attacks from doing damage doesn’t just mean throwing extra resources at the problem. For community banks, resources are already stretched thin so If they are going to properly build up their defenses, many will need to rethink their overall approaches to cybersecurity. Take the $226 million-asset Citizens Bank of Kansas in Kingman. The bank’s small IT staff was spending a considerable amount of time reimaging its machines — that is the process of wiping a computer clean after it has been infected and installing a new operating system.
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Once you understand how easy and common it is for thieves to attach “skimming” devices to ATMs and other machines that accept debit and credit cards, it’s difficult not to closely inspect and even tug on the machines before using them. Several readers who are in the habit of doing just that recently shared images of skimmers they discovered after gently pulling on various parts of a cash machine they were about to use.
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Cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab on Monday said it had obtained digital evidence that bolsters suspicions by some researchers that North Korea was involved in last year's $81 million cyber heist of the Bangladesh central bank's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Russian-based Kaspersky released a 58-page report on Lazarus, a group linked to the heist in Bangladesh and the 2014 attack on Sony's Hollywood studio, which the U.S. government blamed on North Korea.
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Google's top-notch vulnerability researchers rarely bring good news. They've found another whopper: Flaws in a microchip used widely in Apple and Android mobile devices could be used to remotely hack a device over Wi-Fi. It's the kind of heart-stopping find that has unfortunately become routine for Google's Project Zero, which does deep research into critical software and components. Apple has issued for a patch for the flaws, but Android devices remain unprotected. The problems are contained within the firmware of a system on chip made by Broadcom that is used in mobile devices and Wi-Fi routers.
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U.S. payroll gains slowed in March while the jobless rate unexpectedly dropped to the lowest in almost a decade, suggesting the labor market is returning to a more sustainable pace of progress. The 98,000 increase followed a 219,000 rise in February that was less than previously estimated, a Labor Department report showed Friday in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 180,000 advance. The unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent from 4.7 percent, and wage gains slowed to a 2.7 percent year-over-year pace.
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Small business owners are feeling good about sales, the economy and future conditions, with women- and millennial-owned businesses reporting significant increases in sentiment and expectations for the future. Capital One's latest Small Business Growth Index found 50 percent of small business owners (SBOs) overall feel current business conditions are good or excellent (up from 41 percent a year ago), and the same percentage expect to see conditions improve in the next six months – the highest level reported since spring 2012.
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As traditional retailers continue to struggle with drawing in foot traffic, the industry’s largest brands are thinking small. Walmart, Target, Dollar General, Whole Foods Market and even Amazon are building smaller format stores to cater to a more mobile, urban, on-the-go consumer. In fact, small format retail categories — drug, dollar and convenience stores — outgrew larger format stores by almost 400% in 2015, and now make up a more than $1 trillion market.
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Heading to Vegas in May for TRANSACT 17? The Strawhecker Group (TSG), a Gold sponsor, will have a significant presence. Schedule an in-person meeting to discuss current pain points and goals for the remainder of 2017. Act now before times fill up!
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Visa Inc. announced that Visa Checkout, the easier way to use a Visa card online, is sustaining tremendous growth, reaching more than 20 million enrolled accounts. Visa Checkout enables millions of consumers to pay in just a few clicks on any device around the web with some of the world’s top merchants. “Visa Checkout continues to simplify the online checkout process for consumers, while helping merchants increase sales and convert items in the cart to completed purchases,” says Sam Shrauger, senior vice president, digital solutions, Visa Inc. “Reaching 20 million enrolled accounts is a huge achievement and further affirms Visa Checkout’s purpose of bringing the trust and security of your Visa card to the evolving digital world.”
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PayPal and Visa announced an extension of their U.S. partnership in Asia Pacific that will see them work collaboratively to accelerate the adoption of secure, reliable and convenient digital and mobile payments for consumers and merchants in markets throughout the region. This partnership makes it easier for Visa issuing banks in Asia Pacific to offer their cardholders the ability to checkout anywhere PayPal is accepted online. It also expands the use of PayPal to retailers that accept Visa in physical locations.
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Uber introduced Instant Pay last year, as a way to use the revenue from their Uber fares right away, without waiting for it to be deposited into their own bank account. The company first launched the program with GoBank and a dedicated Visa card, but eventually opened it up to virtually all U.S-based MasterCard, Visa or Discover debit card tied to checking and savings accounts. Opening things up led to a big spike in usage, which is how the service managed to account for over $1.3 billion dollars in cash-outs by drivers in its first year alone.
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Ingenico ePayments’ innovation team has partnered with Belgian startup Luckycycle to develop Ingenico Gamified Checkout, which uses games to infuse the checkout experience with the excitement that comes with the chance to win rewards. Giving consumers an opportunity to win back their basket amount has been shown to increase checkout conversion, stickiness and grow customer loyalty. Ingenico Gamified Checkout is available both as an online as well as an instore solution. For online merchants, Gamified Checkout is integrated into Ingenico’s MyCheckout hosted payment pages.
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In a move to further expand its efforts towards displacing cash, spurring innovation and driving the growth of cashless payments in the region, Mastercard today announced that Mastercard cardholders from select banks in the UAE* will now be able use the Samsung Pay service to make payments in a quick and secure way. Samsung Pay, Samsung’s mobile payments service, is an easy-to-use and secure platform that gives users a contactless way to pay using their compatible Samsung Galaxy devices at compatible Point of Sale terminals.
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Apriva, a leading provider of omnichannel payment solutions and secure mobile communications, announced that they have partnered with Apptizer, an omnichannel app developer, to deliver mobile stores that centralize and manage business generated through various mobile paths. Apriva’s EMV-enabled Gateway brings state-of-the-art security with end-to-end encryption, tokenization, and EMV capabilities to Apptizer’s solutions, while connecting a variety of payment devices to Apriva’s vast processor connections.
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Cayan, a payment technology company, today announced a strategic partnership with Deluxe, a growth engine for small businesses and financial institutions. With this partnership, Cayan will enable Deluxe’s small business merchants to establish an ecommerce presence. Deluxe works with leading business brands such as Aplus.net®, Vertical Response®, Orange Soda®, Jumpline®, Hostopia®, NEBs® and Safeguard®.
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CardConnect Corp. announced that it completed the acquisition of MertzCo, Inc. (“MertzCo”). MertzCo, located in Chicago, Illinois, markets and resells credit card, debit card, gift card, loyalty card, and other payment process services. MertzCo also offers automated clearing house services, point of sale equipment, software and related goods and services. During 2016, MertzCo’s merchant accounts processed approximately $1.5 billion of annual payment processing transaction volume.
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Avangate, the global eCommerce and subscription billing platform for software, SaaS, and digital solutions, announces its acquisition of 2Checkout, a global payment processor. The combined company will offer the industry's most comprehensive product and service suite in the subscription billing and eCommerce space, linking payment model flexibility with advanced eCommerce, recurring revenue management, and marketing capabilities on a global level.
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Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp is advertising for a digital transaction lead with experience of UPI, Aadhaar and BHIM, in a move which is seen as the precursor to the launch of a peer-to-peer payments service in India. Indian media company The Ken claims that WhatsApp plans to use UPI, a cross-bank payment system backed by the government, to enable payments between users within the next six months.
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American Express will host its third annual Leadership Academy Global Alumni Summit in New York on April 3 and 4, celebrating ten years of a transformative program that has developed nearly 3,000 nonprofit and social purpose leaders. Fifty-one distinguished program alumni, from around the world, will collaborate with representatives from eleven top leadership development and entrepreneurship organizations, including The Aspen Institute, Ashoka Changemakers, Common Purpose, and Independent Sector, to discuss best practices for advancing the sector’s impact on society.
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PayConex Plus is Bluefin’s payment platform offering a variety of solutions for mobile, unattended, retail, mail/telephone order (MOTO) and international acceptance, backed by multi-currency processing and multi-lingual support capabilities. The platform features PCI-validated Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) and EMV for both merchants and integrated Point of Sale (POS) providers, including the GoChip™ SDK for EMV integration, as well as Ingenico RBA Terminal Support. PayConex Plus also integrates to major shopping carts.
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Sterling Payment Technologies, a leading provider of secure payment processing, and Ingenico Group, the global leader in seamless payment, announced the release of the market’s first EMV payment solution that supports tip adjust from the point of sale solution and point-to-point encryption (P2PE) for Ingenico Group’s semi-integrated smart terminal solutions, the iCT 220CL and the iCT250. The new solutions leverage the benefits of Sterling’s proprietary processing platform.
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In a first for cash-loving Germany, Deutsche Bank has added host card emulation-based contactless payments to its Android app. Customers with NFC-enabled Android handsets will be able to link their Mastercard debit or debit card and make contactless payments of up to EUR25 by unlocking their phones and holding them against a POS terminal. For larger payments, they will need to enter a PIN.
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Payment services and gateway provider Shift4 Corporation and AutoClerk, Inc., provider of property management systems (PMS) for hotels, today announced the general availability of EMV. The joint solution features advanced payment security technologies — offering a premium level of security and convenience for hoteliers and their guests. AutoClerk's cloud-based PMS, myHMS, integrates with Shift4's DOLLARS ON THE NET payment gateway, making it the first solution of its kind to support EMV, which helps to prevent instances of card-present fraud while keeping the entire hotel environment free of sensitive card data.
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NCR Corporation, a global leader in omni-channel solutions, has launched the NCR Silver family of point-of-sale (POS) solutions to Australian retail, service and restaurant merchants. NCR Silver is an integrated payment, marketing and management solution that can transform a tablet into a complete POS system, capable of sales reporting, employee management, inventory management and more. Designed for small business merchants, NCR Silver is ideal for those who need a mobile solution to complete transactions as well as manage business remotely.
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SA Technologies, Inc., a payment technology provider of cashless and mobile transactions in self-serve retail, today announced that during its third fiscal quarter, which ended March 31, 2017, the company crossed its goal of 500,000 connections to its ePort® Connect service. Three years ago the company set its sights on an aggressive goal to reach this objective by accelerating adoption, building critical mass for the business and firmly maintaining its leadership position in the unattended and self-serve retail markets.
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Net Element, Inc. a provider of global mobile payment technology solutions and value-added transactional services, announces that its PayOnline subsidiary has launched Apple Pay support in Russia. According to Apple, Inc., the global number of Apple Pay users is growing at a rate of over one million per week, while transaction volumes are up 500% over the last year. Since launching in Russia on October 4, 2016, the number of Apple Pay users in the country has increased to an estimated 200,000 and continues growing.
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Merchant e-Solutions, a U.S.-based provider of end-to-end global payment solutions, and a company of Cielo S.A., announced that it has been chosen as a Select Technology Partner by Magento, the worldwide leader in commerce platform innovation. This enhanced relationship will allow deeper integration of Merchant e-Solutions’ multi-channel payment offerings with Magento’s flexible commerce platform.
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Integrity Payment Systems and CORELinQ Innovations have announced a partnership designed to provide payment acceptance for the CORELinQ line up of radiology business management tools. Integrity brings 13 years of payment technology and business solutions to CORELinQ’s customers. CORELinQ Innovations offers a suite of products and services for outpatient radiology, focused on improving workflow and reducing costs without compromising patient care. The partnership with Integrity enables CORELinQ to further aid its clients grow their volumes, improve cash flow and reduce operating costs by fully integrating payments into its system.
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YapStone, a global provider of online and mobile payment solutions for global marketplaces and large vertical markets, announces the strategic hire of Sanjay Saraf, former CTO of Western Union Digital, as the company’s Chief Technology Officer. In his role, Saraf will lead YapStone’s technology organization and manage product engineering, infrastructure and operations, information security, research, development, and innovation as the company expands its digital payments product platform to power online marketplaces globally.
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Financial technology provider, Payscape, has teamed up with Atlanta's Embassy National Bank, to provide local businesses with the latest financial products and services that will allow them to increase cash flow, process payments, and streamline their business operations through innovative software solutions. "We are truly excited about our new partnership with Embassy National Bank. Their proven dedication to their clients and community is inspiring. We can't wait to see how our financial technology product suite will help grow both businesses!" said John Mills, regional business development manager at Payscape.
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EDGE Mobile Payments has announced it’s partnering with Nuvation Engineering, a leading electronic design services company, to develop its flagship product: the EDGE card. According to a press release, the companies are working together to make the EDGE card the most advanced payment card within the FinTech market. Some of its features will include a full color touchscreen, digital storage of multiple credit and debit cards and biometric verification security. It will also include financial management options, including real-time account information and digital receipt storage, as well as “Credit Assistant” account optimization software that will recommend which card a consumer should use based on their FICO credit score, interest rates and rewards programs.
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