October, 2017

• 1 October

  The Meaning of PSD2

  

  Europe’s new payments regulation promises much, including free transactions. But do banks need to be forced to do what’s in the best interests of customers and shareholders? The European Union’s revised payment-services directive (PSD2) changes rules governing payments and is intended to, and inevitably will, impact the roles and economics …

July, 2017

• 1 July

  Whatever Happened to Buy Buttons?

  The buy button, which only two years ago showed much promise on social networks, has been superseded by the need to accommodate mobile shoppers. They were once thought to be a new way to spur more online transactions as consumers amped up the time they spent on social networks. But, …

June, 2017

• 1 June

  Faster Payments in the U.S. (As It Has Unfolded So Far)

  

  The Fed’s task force has made a lot of progress, and on some fronts the results look promising. So why does it seem like the creation story of Visa and Mastercard all over again? It has been a long time since the initial Faster Payments discussions in 2013, and one …

May, 2017

• 1 May

  Why the Secret Sauce Isn’t So Secret Any More

  

  With the rise of APIs and the race for consumer loyalty, payments players are under pressure to innovate as never before. The result? A new openness to outside developers. If anything in the payments business can be said to approximate a company’s crown jewels, it’s the code that controls, uniquely …

March, 2017

• 1 March

  Circling the Payments Industry

  

  Circle Internet Financial has moved beyond Bitcoin to social payments. But its ambitions don’t stop there. Bitcoin remains a financial-services buzzword. But it’s becoming more and more clear that the cryptocurrency will be relegated to back-office processes outside the consumer’s awareness. Seeing this movement, Jeremy Allaire, founder and chief executive …

February, 2017

• 1 February

  Why App Stores Have Come to the Point of Sale

  

  As POS systems gain ground, vendors strive to keep merchants happy with more than single-purpose payment terminals. Enter the app store. Adaptability as a survival mechanism not only has a role in nature, but in the payments arena, too. One area where that’s manifested is in the adoption of a …

December, 2016

• 1 December

  Who’s Afraid of Amazon?

  

  If you’re not, and you’re a retailer with physical stores, you should be. But there’s a way to fight back. Proprietary mobile apps show the way. Amazon.com Inc. is on a tear. Reports show the online retailer accounted for 24 cents of every $1 in retail sales growth in 2015, …

October, 2016

• 1 October

  Stockpile’s Moment of Truth

  

  A gift card marketed by a little-known startup and backed by shares of stock in big-name companies is coming to J-hooks near you. Gift card marketers have dominated the holiday season and other gift-giving occasions in recent years, but now a card is coming to thousands of those checkout-lane racks …

July, 2016

• 1 July

  Debit Diversification

  

  The EFT networks are broadening their product lineups, but are EMV and the global networks getting in their way? Eyeing high-growth payment markets such as e-commerce, the surviving electronic funds transfer networks are in a rush to expand their product menus beyond bread-and-butter PIN-debit transaction switching. At the same time, …