• Shift4 Corp. announced it is among the first payment gateways to introduce a software update to support the various quick-chip solutions from the major payment brands for faster EMV chip card transactions. • Uber and Visa Inc. launched Uber Local Offers, a program that enables Uber riders to earn …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Mobile wallets eventually will get the contactless terminals and other infrastructure they need to attract consumers, according to an executive with Alphabet Inc.’s Android Pay. Their ultimate success, however, will depend on the value they offer merchants and consumers. “It’s still all about value creation,” Jack Connors, …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews A vital measure of the U.S. payment card industry’s migration to EMV chip transactions is advancing smartly for mobile point-of-sale provider CardFlight Inc. New York-based CardFlight says 46% of the transactions processed via its gateway in June were made with chip cards using EMV readers. That’s an …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Traffic on the nation’s automated clearing house network has perked up over the last couple of years, and the latest statistics show no slacking off in that trend. Second-quarter transaction volume on the ACH grew 5.6% in the quarter ended June 30, down from the first …

• The ATM Industry Association issued an updated position paper in support of variable surcharges, or so-called “convenience fees,” for ATM transactions; the trade group says global network policies effectively force ATM deployers to assess uniform surcharges despite differences in network interchange rates and fees, and that the coming of …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The ATM Industry Association on Monday issued a position paper that once again calls for freedom for deployers to set variable surcharges. The Sioux Falls, S.D.-based trade group took that stance a decade ago, but the coming of EMV chip cards to the U.S. makes the surcharging …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Dollars loaded onto closed-loop gift cards fell 9% in 2015, according to new research from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. But one major prepaid card issuer, Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc., franchisor of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins stores, reports that its DD Perks loyalty program now has more …

• VeriFone Systems Inc. released an updated version of the EMV application for point-of-sale terminals used on processor Total System Services Inc.’s network that now includes EMV tip adjust among other functions. • ClickBid, a provider of mobile-bidding technology, says it is using hosted fields from Braintree, a unit of PayPal …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Two hotel and resort chains this week reported apparent data breaches involving payment cards used at their locations. These latest compromises come less than two weeks after compromise occurred between early March and mid-June. Millennium, which has 14 luxury or boutique U.S. properties, isolated and then took …

By John Stewart@DTPaymentNews The big banks that run clearXchange are getting around to slapping a brand name on the peer-to-peer payments network, five years after founding it. The new name is going to be Zelle, confirms a spokesperson for Early Warning Services LLC, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based fraud-management company that real-time …