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IndustryUpdate
IndustryUpdate

ANNOUNCEMENTS Net Element receives funds for blockchain unit

Net Element Inc. a global financial technology and
EMS moving to Cleveland value-added solutions group, completed a $7.55 million
private placement of restricted common stock and war-
Electronic Merchant Systems is relocating its corporate rants with a New York-based family office that has made
headquarters to downtown Cleveland in mid-2018. The several investments in companies with blockchain tech-
company signed a lease for approximately 48,000 square nology platforms. The investor purchased shares of Net
feet of office space in the 250 West Huron Building at Element's restricted common stock and five-year war-
Tower City Center. This ideal location occupies the rants. The funds are expected to further development
entire fourth floor and a portion of the fifth floor of of the company's blockchain-focused unit, which was
Tower City Center's former Chase Financial Plaza and formed in December 2017; support growth initiatives;
will comfortably accommodate EMS' growing work and allow for potential acquisitions.
force, which is currently based outside of Cleveland in
Independence, Ohio, EMS stated. Star Financial joins Withdraw Cash Wednesday
Google Pay in with Fandango The ATM Industry Association welcomed independent
ATM deployer Star Financial Services, Inc. as a Withdraw
Fandango will be rolling out Google Pay as a new digi- Cash Wednesday Gold Sponsor for its 2018 and 2019
tal payment option for movie ticket purchases across its campaigns. Already underway for the U.S. year-end
social ticketing platforms. Google Pay brings together holiday shopping season, the campaign is designed
all the ways to make purchases with Google, including to promote consumer cash usage and boost ATM cash
Android Pay and Google Wallet, into one single brand, withdrawals nationwide by educating consumers on the
Fandango said. "Fandango is always looking for new benefits of using cash for budgeting, to reduce debt, save
ways to make discovering movies and purchasing tick- on credit card interest fees, and save time at checkout,
ets faster and easier for moviegoers," said Mark Young, ATMIA stated.
Senior Vice President, Strategy & Business Development
at Fandango. "Google Pay provides a simple, intuitive
option for Fandango customers to speed through check- RESEARCH
out with just one tap."
CFPB assesses credit card market
JCB testing palm authentication
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its
JCB Co. Ltd. plans to run a trial of multipurpose, server- biennial report on the credit card market. Among the
based, visible light palm authentication in February 2018 findings: total amount of credit line, used or unused,
in collaboration with Universal Robot Co. Ltd. and the on cards remains below pre-recession crisis levels but
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and has steadily increased post-crisis; new credit card orig-
Technology. The trial will employ Universal Robot's inations remain below pre-crisis volumes but have
visible light palm authentication, using both palm print increased by roughly 50 percent since 2010; average
and vein patterns, which has "the world's highest level credit card debt increased 9 percent over the last two
of accuracy at only 1 in 100 billion false acceptance rate," years; more than 60 percent of active credit card accounts
JCB noted. The trial at JCB's Tokyo headquarters will test are enrolled in online services; cardholders average
technical aspects of authentication during the registra- fewer credit cards than before the recession; and more
tion and payment flow. consumers are signing up for secured cards that require

NMA expands to U.K. a cash deposit.
Ransomeware up 89 percent in healthcare
National Merchants Association revealed it plans to
open an office in London. The global merchant advo- Cyber defense firm Cryptonite released the 2017 Health
cacy group and merchant services provider ranked 196 Care Cyber Research Report, containing findings on health-
on the 2017 Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing privately care cyberattacker activity in 2017. Cryptonite research-
owned U.S. companies and is in the process of obtaining ers found that healthcare institutions "remain under
a Payment Facilitator certification, which will allow it to sustained attack by cyberattackers that continue to target
process payment transactions throughout the European their networks through the use of well understood vul-
Union. "Taking businesses stateside has always been nerabilities."
a major challenge for merchants in the U.K. as well as
the rest of Europe, but NMA views these challenges as The company determined a total of 140 data breach
an opportunity to help business owners increase their events were characterized and reported by healthcare
profitability while steering them toward cost-effective organizations to the U.S. Department of Health and
processing solutions," the company stated. Human Services Office of Civil Rights as IT/hacking in

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