Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

The gradual lowering of barriers that have kept legal marijuana merchants outside of the financial mainstream gained momentum Friday in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) and the U.S. Department of Justice announced new guidelines that signal federal approval for banks to serve legal marijuana …

With Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. digging in their heels on a key chip card deadline, payments executives are expressing doubts that all U.S. small businesses will be ready. “The short answer is no,” says Henry Helgeson, chief executive of Merchant Warehouse, a Boston-based merchant processor. “We still have a …

Consumers shopping at seven Whole Foods Market locations in Austin, Texas, New York City, Florida, and the San Francisco Bay area now can use their Square Wallet apps to pay for merchandise inside the stores. Whole Foods and Square Inc. are installing Square Register-equipped iPads on Square Stands inside these …

In the wake of recent data breaches at Target Corp. and other retailers, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, author of a famous amendment that regulates debit card interchange, and an ally want to know how well a provision in the amendment that gives a debit card issuer an extra penny in …

Revel Systems Inc. is the latest payments organization to support Bitcoin with the announcement Tuesday that consumers can use the digital currency with its iPad-based point-of-sale system. San Francisco-based Revel is working with Bitcoin wallet provider Coinbase to integrate acceptance. Revel added Bitcoin acceptance because of about 30 requests from …

Merchant Customer Exchange, the retailer-controlled mobile-payments network, took another step toward launch on Wednesday when it announced a deal with Paydiant Inc. to use the startup wallet provider’s technology at member merchant locations. Dallas-based MCX also said Wendy’s International LLC, the hamburger chain, and regional grocery chain Acme Fresh Market …

Up Solutions, the cloud-based point-of-sale division of United Merchant Services Inc., has set its Up Tab restaurant POS system at zero cost for resellers, the company announced today. Separately, Harbortouch has updated its POS Sales Center iPad app with new functions. Comprising an Android-based tablet, stand, printer, card reader, and …

Equinox Payments LLC has a new owner. In a bid to strengthen its hand in the market for EMV gear in the United States, NBS Payment Solutions Inc. announced late Thursday it bought the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based payment-terminal maker for an undisclosed amount from the private-equity investment firm Gores Group LLC. …

American Express Co. is stepping up its campaign to add small merchants to its acceptance base with a program called OptBlue that gives partner merchant acquirers a greater role than they had with an older program called OnePoint. AmEx started testing OptBlue late last year and revealed details about it …

Apple Inc. removed from its vast mobile-applications market called the App Store the Blockchain mobile wallet for accessing the Bitcoin virtual currency, an action Blockchain claims will leave no native Bitcoin options for users of Apple’s iOS mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad. Apple’s move quickly stirred protests …

A new contactless payment scheme available from On Track Innovations Ltd. enables consumers to pay for fuel at the pump without removing their payment card from their wallets. n Currently, EasyFuel Plus is available in Europe and other international locations. OTI says plans to market it in the United States …

EMVCo., the international standards body for chip cards based on the EMV specification, is fast-tracking a specification for card-number tokenization in the wake of recently disclosed data breaches at major retailers, including the theft of card and other information on 110 million customers of Target Corp. The chip card organization …

Close to 60% of ISOs and other processors are reporting compliance rates of 40% or better among their portfolios of so-called Level 4 merchants, up about five percentage points from a year ago, according to a survey released by Atlanta-based security-solutions vendor ControlScan Inc. and the Merchant Acquirers’ Committee, a …

Target Corp. said on Tuesday that it passed its latest Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) inspection a mere three months before confirming in December that a data breach compromised 40 million customers’ payment card numbers. Target also said it is fast-tracking its efforts to roll out chip card acceptance …

Another large retailer, with as many as 100,000 locations, will begin using a mobile payments app developed by Paydiant Inc. within the next few weeks, Jed Rice, senior vice president of business development, told attendees at the Northeast Acquirers Association conference last week in West Dover, Vt. n He also …

Merchants and financial institutions will find their information-protection practices under intense scrutiny this week in Washington, where no fewer than four Senate and House of Representatives hearings are scheduled in the wake of payment card data breaches at Target Corp., Neiman Marcus Group and other merchants. The sessions kick off …

Visa Inc. chief executive Charles Scharf on Thursday quelled rumors that the payment network might change its October 2015 liability-shift deadline for Europay-MasterCard-Visa chip card transactions. Scharf also decried what he called “misinformation” and “confusion” about card security following December’s news of Target Corp.’s huge payment card data breach and …

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit against Mercury Payment Systems LLC alleging deceptive pricing by Mercury allowed it to lure scores of merchants away from Heartland and attract prospects to Mercury that had been weighing the two companies for payment-processing services. Heartland’s suit, filed in U.S. …

Mobile-imaging software developer Mitek Systems Inc. on Wednesday announced its Mobile Photo Payments application that enables large billers to receive bill payments from consumers using their mobile devices. The service complements San Diego-based Mitek’s existing Mobile Photo Bill Pay product, which rolled out last year and is distributed mainly through …

In the wake of the recently discovered data breaches at major merchants like Target Corp., Neiman Marcus Group, and Michaels Stores, much of the talk in the payments industry has focused on whether more advanced card technology, like chip cards, might have mitigated the risk of fraud. But one ambitious …