Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

By Kevin Woodward Financial institutions that are facing the U.S. conversion to EMV chip cards but have no global card brands on all or a portion of their debit card portfolios now have an option that helps them meet regulatory requirements. The Debit Network Alliance LLC, which is owned by …

A variant of a skimming device called a “shimmer,” which steals EMV chip card data, has been found on an ATM in Mexico, raising security questions as the United States converts to the EMV standard. The shimmer incident was first disclosed Tuesday by security reporter Brian Krebs of the KrebsOnSecurity …

By Kevin Woodward San Francisco-based carrier-billing specialist Boku Inc. has bought mobile-payments provider mobileview Italia, Boku announced Thursday. The deal means Boku will provide carrier billing to more than 87 million mobile-carrier subscribers in Italy. Globally, Boku says its service, which enables consumers to make digital purchases using their wireless …

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. says its Samsung Pay mobile-payment service, which uses near-field communication and a radio-frequency version of magnetic-stripe data, will debut Sept. 28 in the United States. Some consumers with some Samsung smart-phone and tablet models will be able to participate in a test set to begin Aug. …

By John Stewart At Infinite Peripherals Inc., there’s nothing peripheral about the mobile point of sale. The Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based company, whose stock in trade is not the mobile device but just about anything that can be connected to it, is growing rapidly in tandem with the soaring popularity …

XpressBuy Inc., developer of a buy button that can be used on the Web, in social networks, apps, and emails, says four of the largest e-commerce platforms have integrated its technology into their systems. Retailers using Demandware Inc., IBM Corp.’s WebSphere Commerce, Shopify Inc., and eBay Inc.’s Magento now can …

By Kevin Woodward With more $1 million (Canadian) in new funding, self-checkout app SelfPay looks to expand its reach within retail stores. Toronto-based Digital Retail Apps says the funding, which is approximately $764,402 in U.S. currency, also will be used to secure more patents. Dallas-based Texas Ventures led the funding, …

Credit card fraud in the United States is at epidemic levels. Last year, the U.S. accounted for more fraud than the rest of the world combined. And the fraud rates are accelerating. EMV technology, which has shown to greatly reduce in-store fraud in Europe, is finally being rolled out in the …

By John Stewart When First Data Corp. last month formally let the world know it intends to make an initial public offering of stock, the massive processor said it plans to use the IPO’s proceeds to reduce its big debt load. Some experts said this could free up capital so …

Corporate card stalwart American Express Co. says corporate cards it issues on behalf of U.S. employers now can be used with Apple Pay. AmEx says its portfolio is the first major corporate card file to be activated for Apple Inc.’s mobile-payment service. Apple Pay’s potential for additional spend with corporate …

A new survey shows users of remote deposit capture overwhelmingly say the benefits of the service far outweigh its risks and costs. Other recent surveys by RemoteDepositCapture.com, a news and information clearinghouse, reveal the cost benefits users assign to the service and show that many users take weeks to destroy …

With just 55 days to go, separate studies released this week show that the Oct. 1 target date for the U.S. to adopt the EMV chip card standard is looking more and more like a psychological deadline than a real one. Both merchants and credit and debit card issuers are …

Issuers are generating less in interchange for PIN and signature debit card transactions than they were 10 years ago, according to the Pulse electronic funds transfer network’s 2015 Debit Issuer Study released Thursday. The study examined transactions made in 2014 from more than 70 debit issuers involving 147 million debit …

    Andrew Naumann, Vice President, Product Management — Merchant Solutions, CyberSource Fraud is not the problem It used to be that when we asked merchants about their most significant eCommerce challenges, ‘fraud!’ would invariably be the answer. The focus was relentlessly on reducing chargebacks — it was the only …

No category of payment-card-accepting merchants, including health-care providers, is immune from the EMV liability shift coming Oct. 1. Yet, some payments providers specializing in servicing clinics and hospitals say there is a lack of understanding among their clients that goes beyond what acquirers have found in other merchant categories. “Health …

By John Stewart With the business of selling merchant accounts growing more technology-based every day, how are processors going to recruit new independent sales organizations that have the necessary expertise? For at least some processors, the answer lies in inducing independent software vendors, known as ISVs, to become ISOs as …

A federal judge on Tuesday nullified a pending settlement between American Express Co. and merchants in a class-action lawsuit over AmEx’s anti-steering rules because of improper conduct by a co-lead attorney for the merchants. The decision immediately cast a shadow over the $5.7 billion settlement Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. …

The broader business of point-of-sale technology has many concerns that include payments but aren’t limited to that function. These days, though, it may seem that payments—and especially EMV—is all this business talks about. This was certainly the case this week at RetailNOW, a four-day conference in Orlando, Fla., produced by …

  As the U.S. payment card industry hurtles toward its EMV destiny approaching on Oct. 1, the process for certifying EMV-compliant point-of-sale terminals is moving along well, albeit with one exception. Point-of-sale systems, which are available in a myriad of configurations with software from one company, hardware from another and …

A federal appellate court on Tuesday reinstated a proposed class-action lawsuit over ATM pricing rules that independent ATM operators and consumers filed against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. in 2011 but a district court dismissed in 2013. The ruling originated with three lawsuits filed by the National ATM Council Inc., …