By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews The payments industry’s efforts to protect sensitive cardholder data and transactions are moves in the right direction. They’ll have to be, because solutions to the epidemic of data breaches and online fraud are going to have to come from the private sector and from consumers’ own precautions. …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Having made peace with Visa Inc. in July, PayPal Holdings Inc. announced a similar agreement Tuesday with MasterCard Inc. that further extends the online payments leader’s reach at the point of sale. But PayPal’s new accord has some differences from the one it reached with Visa, most …

• Noble House Hotels & Resorts, which earlier said it had been notified by the U.S. Secret Service about a possible card-data breach at its Ocean Key Resort & Spa, said it has found through an investigation that card data may have been compromised at 11 other hotels, restaurants, and …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews If misery loves company, then VeriFone Systems Inc. can make room for its arch-rival, France-based Ingenico Group. Ingenico reported Tuesday that a “sudden and significant” decline in U.S. EMV-related revenues, along with weak sales in Brazil, had forced it to lower its revenue and profit forecasts for …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Nearly three-quarters of mobile-phone owners have made some sort of payment with their devices, but in-app, bill, and person-to-person payments all exceed in-store payments, according to new findings from First Annapolis Consulting Inc. The Annapolis, Md.-based consulting and research firm says 74% of mobile-phone-using consumers reported in …

• E-commerce services provider Digital River Inc. released a white paper, “The Subscriptions Generation,” which offers guidance for e-commerce decision-makers and product marketers considering online subscription-based business models. • The Western Union Co. announced it is offering free money transfers from agent locations in most countries to more than 450 agent …

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By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews 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 that will let budding investors buy or give away shares of stock in a favorite company.

• Hotel operator Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants said its point-of-sale system at several of its properties was breached earlier this year, from Feb. 16 through July 7. Kimpton began its investigation after receiving a report on July 15 of unauthorized charges after consumers used their cards at the restaurant in …

The fraud bug struck debit card issuers last year, and the illness spared neither signature nor PIN-based varieties of debit. Researchers identified a big increase in skimming as part, but only one part, of the cause. According to the 2016 Debit Issuer Study commissioned by Discover Financial Services’ Pulse electronic …