What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, bitcoin value was beginning a steady decline that would see it dip to $172 in early January – it’s lowest value since the good old days of late 2013, early 2014 when it reached nearly $1,200 per. We’re not near that level again, but the digital…
Category: Industry News
Card Payments in the UK Become Preferred Method
It’s no secret that the landscape of the payments industry is drastically changing. It has been changing for some time. The advent of the internet and the increases in payment technology over the past decade have encouraged some methods to evolve over others. At the end of 2015, we see card payments emerge as the clear favorite,…
3 Goals of the CFPB Payday Lending Regulations
Back in March, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) released an outline of new payday lending regulations that predictably drew criticism from the consumer and lender sides. As written in a recent article in Collections & Credit Risk, the CFPB’s regulations are nearing completion, which will change the landscape on payday lending. Several times throughout the article, the…
Australian Businessman Believed To Be Bitcoin Founder
Bitcoin has taken the public by storm. It’s not just a hobby for tech enthusiasts anymore, but rather, an investment opportunity. It’s even begun to change the way the payments industry functions, and has caused many e-commerce merchants to open bitcoin merchant accounts. It has emerged as a safer way to spend money online, as…
How Merchants, Acquirers Win With EU Interchange Fees
Wednesday, Dec. 9 came and went in most parts of the world. In Europe, however, it was a pivotal day in the payments industry. It marked the capping of credit and debit card fees to 0.3 and 0.2 percent on domestic credit and debit transactions, respectively, within the 28-member European Union. This means merchants and…
Holiday Season Brings More Credit Card Photo ID Requests
It’s that time of year again. Shoppers are hitting stores and e-commerce sites in droves, meaning the risk for credit card fraud is more substantial. Luckily, this year we have EMV processing terminals and chip cards in place to help cut out in-store fraud. However, thousands of retailers still lack the proper equipment to facilitate…
Bitcoin Value Soars to Over 500 USD
For the first time in a year, bitcoin value soared by about 50% to $500 last week, indicating a sharp rise in interest around the globe. With prices for the digital currency lingering below $200 for much of the year, the recent surge tells us that bitcoin is here to stay. With more merchants and…
Slow Start to EMV Processing is Just the Beginning
October 1st was the official start of the EMV era. That’s the date that merchants, financial institutions, and consumers had spent several years preparing for, as the United States welcomed new credit cards, debit cards, and POS systems. However, the initial results observed since the beginning of the month have tempered the expectations of many,…
D.C., Alternative Lending and Same-Day ACH: The Highlights of the WSAA Conference Day 2
Constant traffic. Business cards exchanged. Engaging discussions on the most important issues facing the payments industry. It was another full day of meetings and seminars at the Western States Acquirers Association (WSAA) Conference. Midway through day two, we encountered a good sign: the Instabill booth was running low on chachkis — our sticky wallets that…
CRM, Alternative Lending and Medical Payments: Takeaways from the WSAA Conference Day 1
The 12th Annual Western States Acquirers Association (WSAA) conference opened Wednesday morning to a full day of seminars followed by meetings at the M Resort just outside Las Vegas. The show marked a return for Instabill, which last attended the WSAA Conference in 2012. It was also the 10th trade show appearance of the calendar…