The U.S. Department of Justice and seven states on Monday sued Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc., and American Express Co. over their merchant-acceptance policies, especially those that restrict discounting for other cards or payment forms. Visa and MasterCard immediately announced a settlement, but AmEx said it would fight. The antitrust lawsuit …

Mobile payments are barely out of the starting gate, but fraudsters are quickly discovering the new channel’s potential for making a dishonest buck, according to new research from LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Fraud losses from mobile payments as a percentage of total revenue were 1.13% compared with 0.83% for online-only merchants …

Many financial institutions that have jumped into remote deposit capture to reap fee income, or have shied away from it out of fear of risk, may be missing the point, according to experts who spoke this week at a conference on the subject. Instead, banks and credit unions should focus …

With 5,100 small and mid-sized businesses already using its E3 end-to-end encryption terminals, Heartland Payment Systems Inc. early next month will roll out its E3 magnetic-stripe reader for PC-based payment applications. The E3 wedge is a small, mag-stripe-reading wedge that plugs into the USB port of a personal computer or …

Leading U.S. point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc. late on Wednesday disclosed it was making a cash bid for archrival Hypercom Corp. in what VeriFone says is an effort to expand its presence in continental Europe. Hypercom's board of directors early Thursday rejected the offer, calling it “opportunistic,” and said …

A rash of debit card fraud has hit customers of the discount supermarket chain Aldi, though its extent and methodology have not been divulged. Criminals obtained customers’ PINs and card numbers in the Midwest to make unauthorized ATM withdrawals in other states, especially California. Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi’s case is different …

A dramatic downdraft in overall mobile-phone ownership has robbed mobile banking of its forward thrust, but the rapid rise of smart phones is compensating for much of that loss, a new research report says. Indeed, smart phone ownership will exceed that of so-called feature phones as soon as next year, …

With the holiday shopping season only weeks away, the nation’s biggest retailers are falling short in their offerings of virtual gift cards, according to research released on Thursday. Of the country’s 100 biggest online merchants—many of which also operate large brick-and-mortar chains—only half offer virtual cards, which are gift “cards” …

Merchant acquirer Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC is also a sizable closed-loop gift card processor, and now it’s about to get into the processing of open-loop prepaid cards through its acquisition of bankrupt Springbok Services Inc.’s technology platform. The acquisition follows closely on the heels of Fifth Third Processing’s announcement …

Bling Nation Ltd.’s decision to use VeriFone Systems Inc. terminals, announced this week, includes an agreement to harness VeriFone’s transaction gateway as well as its reseller network in a move that could bring PayPal Inc. acceptance to thousands of brick-and-mortar merchants. Bling has been testing PayPal acceptance since the end …