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The PCI Security Standards Council has hired a former MasterCard Inc. executive as its new general manager to replace the retiring Bob Russo, and point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico S.A.’s mobile-payment subsidiary Roam Data has a new leader. Russo, who became the PCI Council’s first general manager in March 2007,about six …
Read More »Cash Will Be the King of Washington State Pot Payments, at Least for a While
Like their brethren in Colorado, the new marijuana stores in the state of Washington will be operating mostly on a cash basis, but operators hope that the federal government eventually will remove obstacles preventing them from getting payment card merchant accounts and business checking accounts. On Monday, the Washington State …
Read More »Bill Would Put a Chokehold on the Justice Department’s Operation Choke Point
The U.S. Department of Justice’s controversial Operation Choke Point, an effort to cut off high-risk merchants’ access to electronic payments by challenging the banks and processors that serve them, continues to draw fire. The latest missile comes in the form of a bill from U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., who …
Read More »Making a Decent Profit Gets Tougher for Retail ATM Deployers
Non-bank ATM operators, which run an estimated 52% of the nation’s approximately 412,000 ATMs, are struggling to maintain profitability as revenues come under pressure and costs continue to rise, according to a recent study of U.S. ATM deployers by Tremont Capital Group Inc. and the ATM Industry Association. On the …
Read More »Spurred by Fraud and Fear, Debit Card Issuers Cast Aside Their EMV Reservations
Nothing like a good data breach to serve as a kick in the pants. Thanks in part to Target Corp.’s breach that compromised 40 million payment cards, debit card issuers are committing themselves to the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card standard to a much greater extent than they did a year …
Read More »Mystery Surrounds Upcoming Auction of Silk Road Bitcoins Seized by Feds
One of the most unusual auctions ever is scheduled for Friday, but the event is largely shrouded in mystery. Beginning at 6:00 a.m. Eastern and continuing for 12 hours, the U.S. Marshals Service will take sealed online bids for 29,657 Bitcoins that the FBI seized in its bust last October …
Read More »Estimates Vary, But There’s No Doubt: EMV Cards Soon Will Be in Millions More Wallets
The conversion of U.S. magnetic-stripe credit and debit cards to the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card standard is about to shift into high gear, and the payments forecasters are busier than their counterparts at The Weather Channel just before a hurricane’s landfall. The EMV Migration Forum, an affiliate of the Princeton …
Read More »FDIC Consent Order Restricts The Bancorp Bank’s Dealings With ISOs And Merchants
The parent company of major prepaid card issuer The Bancorp Bank on Wednesday disclosed that the bank had entered into a consent order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that places restrictions on its dealings with independent sales organizations. The order also prevents the bank in some instances from issuing …
Read More »Mobile-App Developer Exploits a Growing Market for Virtual Tickets on Mass Transit
Technology continues to drive change in the way riders on America’s mass-transit systems pay fares. While a few agencies have cast their lot with contactless card systems that also accept general-purpose debit and credit cards with contactless chips, other systems are turning to smart phones as add-ons to existing fare …
Read More »Square Launches a ‘Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You’ Merchant Cash-Advance Service
The merchant cash-advance and non-bank small-business loan sectors have boomed in recent years, with startups, established providers, and PayPal Inc. all seeking to tap merchant demand for capital that banks haven’t met. Now comes merchant processor Square Inc. with a new merchant cash-advance (MCA) service called Square Capital. As it …
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