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Alibaba Spin Off to Acquire MoneyGram for $880 Million

Published on February 1, 2017, by in Industry News, Merger & Acquisitions, Payments.

Ant Financial Services Group, the Alibaba Group affiliate formerly known as Alipay, announced the acquisition of major money remittance company Money Gram for $880 million. While already the online payments leader in China, this acquisition would greatly increase Ant’s international and U.S. presence, with the acquisition expected to close in the second half of the year.

Before their 2014 IPO, Alibaba spun Ant Financial Services Group off as a private company that would continue to operate the Alipay service. It has been estimated that more than half of online payments in China go through Alipay. In 2016, Ant held a private funding round that raised $4.5 billion, resulting in a company valuation comparable to American Express. Ant has plans to go public as well, but will likely now wait until after the MoneyGram merger is complete.

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Black Friday Sets New U.S. Total Online Sales Record, Surpassed by Cyber Monday Days Later

Published on November 30, 2016, by in Industry News, Sales Conversion.

Consumers continue to shop more online and from their mobile devices on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday with another record-setting year. Black Friday 2016 turned out to be the third largest desktop eCommerce shopping day of all-time  in the U.S., but Adobe, including mobile commerce, estimated online Black Friday sales to reach $3.34 billion, surpassing even Cyber Monday from last year. Black Friday became the largest online shopping day in the U.S. including desktop, smartphone and tablet transactions, but this status was short-lived and soon surpassed by this Cyber Monday, when consumers spent $3.39 billion online across all devices.

According to comScore, from November 1st to Black Friday consumers spent over $24.5 billion online from PCs, a 12 percent increase from the corresponding time frame last year. Much of this increase in desktop eCommerce spending occurred on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, when eCommerce volume increased 17 and 19 percent, respectively, from 2015 levels. This included $1.29 billion in desktop eCommerce sales on Thanksgiving and nearly $2 billion spent on Black Friday. Adobe, which included mobile and tablet sales in addition to desktop eComerce, estimated total Black Friday online sales at $3.34 billion, a 22 percent increase from 2015. This marked the largest online shopping day in the U.S. of all-time, records that had previously been surpassed each Cyber Monday.

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The Holiday Season is Also Fraud Season

Published on November 29, 2016, by in Fraud Prevention.

It’s no secret that fraudsters increase their activity and fraud attempts during the holiday season when many merchants are at peak volume, but considering other fraud factors ACI Worldwide predicts a more than 40 percent increase in fraud this holiday season.  Meanwhile the FBI warns of fraudulent merchants, mobile apps with malware and work from home scams that become more prevalent during the holiday season.

According to estimates from ACI Worldwide, online retailers will see a 12 percent increase in fraud attempts globally this holiday season compared to last year, although the average purchase amount per fraud attempt is expected to be lower. Card Not Present channel fraud attempts in the United States, however, are expected to increase at a much higher rate, 43 percent by volume compared to last holiday season. This significant increase is primarily due to the expected shift in fraud to the CNP channel following the rollout of EMV cards.

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Consumers Were Much More Likely to Shop with Mobile Devices Online Rather than In-Store This Black Friday

Published on November 29, 2016, by in Industry News, Payments.

Although mobile eCommerce sales accounted for $1.2 billion on each Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumers shopping in-store were much less likely to pull out their smartphones. According to one payment processor, just 0.6 percent of brick-and-mortar retail transactions in the U.S. on Black Friday were made with a mobile wallet.

According to data from payment processor Cayan, over 90 percent of in-store retail transactions on Black Friday were made with a credit card, while just 0.6 percent used a mobile wallet or mobile payment app. California was the state were consumers were most likely to use a mobile wallet app, which represented 1 percent of brick-and-mortar retail transactions the day after Thanksgiving.

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Vantiv to Acquire Moneris USA for $425 Million

Published on November 29, 2016, by in Merger & Acquisitions.

Vantiv, one of the largest payment processors in the U.S., will expand their merchant client-base with the acquisition of Moneris USA for $425 million from Moneris Solutions Corporation. This major acquisition comes just over four years after Vantiv acquired Litle & Co. for $361 million.

Working with over 800,000 merchants and 1,400 financial institutions Vantiv is currently the second largest payment processor in the U.S., and seeks to grow further with the acquisition of Moneris Solutions, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Moneris Solutions Corporation, a joint venture between BMO Financial Group and Royal Bank Canada.

 

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The Fraud Practice and CardinalCommerce Launch the 4th Annual Consumer Authentication Survey

Published on October 20, 2016, by in In The Press, Industry News, Press Release.

The Fraud Practice and CardinalCommerce launched of the 4th Annual Consumer Authentication Survey this week, extending an open invitation for all eCommerce and multi-channel merchants, acquirers, card issuers, payment service and fraud solution providers to take the survey and provide feedback that can help shape the industry.

Take the 4th Annual Consumer Authentication Survey today for a chance to win one of five Amazon Echo voice-activated Bluetooth speakers. Prize raffles will be held weekly for the next five weeks with all who completed the survey entered in each weekly drawing.

Take the Survey Now

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PCI Council Joins EMVCo in Support of 3-D Secure 2.0 Protocol

Published on October 10, 2016, by in Industry News.

In the beginning of 2015 EMVCo announced they would be responsible for further developing the 3-Domain Secure 2.0 Specification, taking over for Visa and MasterCard. Now just a few months before the expected release of 3DS 2.0, EMVCo and the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council jointly announced they will be collaborating to support the upcoming launch of the new 2.0 protocol.

After announcing their input and collaboration at a cybersecurity expert community meeting event we know the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI-SSC) will focus on addressing environmental security associated with 3DS 2.0. This will include providing security requirements, testing procedures, reporting templates and assessor training.

 

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MasterCard Launches Identity Check App Supporting ‘Selfie’ Authentication for SecureCode

Published on October 10, 2016, by in Fraud Prevention, Industry News.

MasterCard released their Identity Check app in early October, which is now available in 12 countries across Europe and set to be released globally in 2017. While this app has gotten the most attention for it’s ‘selfie pay’ feature, supporting the use of facial recognition in place of a password, it additionally supports fingerprint biometrics as an authentication option with MasterCard SecureCode.

Following trials in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, MasterCard has launched their Identity Check app which supports facial recognition and fingerprint biometrics as a means of completing authentication.

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As SEC Investigates Yahoo Breach, FTC Reiterates Need for Federal Breach Notification Laws

Published on October 10, 2016, by in Data Breach, Industry News.

Following a data breach involving over 500 million accounts and a delay in notifying the public or impacted parties, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) started an investigation into the Yahoo data breach at the request of a Senator. Later at a Senate Committee meeting the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cited the Yahoo breach reiterating their support for federal data breach legislation.

Meanwhile as large-scale data breaches continue, so too does identity theft. The FTC received nearly 500,000 identity theft complaints in 2015, a 47 percent increase from the year before.

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