With an eye on having tangible proposals out by mid-2017, two Federal Reserve task forces are about to evaluate 19 plans to make electronic payments faster. Speed and security usually come to mind first when payments executives talk about improving the U.S. payment system, but other factors increasingly important to …
Read More »TCF Makes Dual Interface Its Standard EMV Debit Card Offering
In a break from the practice of most EMV chip card issuers, TCF National Bank reported this month that it will be issuing all of its customers’ debit cards with both contact and contactless capabilities. The bank, the principal subsidiary of Wayzata, Minn.-based TCF Financial Corp., said it will begin …
Read More »Stripe Employs Visa, MasterCard Real-Time Payment Services for Its Marketplaces Users
MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. reported Monday that online-payments specialist Stripe Inc. is using their instant-payment services to pay merchants such as ride-sharing service Lyft and other users of Stripe’s marketplaces. Stripe actually began offering what it calls Instant Payouts relying on the network services—Mastercard Send and Visa Direct—to merchants as …
Read More »New EMVCo Device-Certification Process Could Give a Lift to NFC Mobile Payments
A streamlined approval for contactless mobile-payment devices announced Wednesday by chip card standards body EMVCo could help mobile-payments boosters realize their elusive dream that the coming of chip cards to the U.S. also will lift smart-phone-based payments. The new approval process is meant to confirm that mobile devices enabled for …
Read More »Credit Card Chip-and-PIN Would Be a Multi-Billion-Dollar Loser, Report Suggests
Implementing so-called chip-and-PIN authentication for U.S. credit cards would cost merchants and card issuers more than $7 billion but prevent only about $850 million in lost-and-stolen card fraud over five years, a new report from Aite Group LLC says. The report, “Chip Cards in the United States: The PIN, PINless, …
Read More »Making Sense of the Relentless Tech-Driven Changes in the Merchant-Acquiring Industry
It might be a cliché, but the saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same has some validity for merchant acquirers despite the rapid introduction of new technologies and the entrance of new competitors in recent years. For example, the top 10 U.S. merchant acquirers in …
Read More »New Federal Trade-Secret Law Could Prove To Be a Double-Edged Sword for ISOs
Every business, including merchant processors and independent sales organizations, wants to protect its trade secrets, and a new federal law gives them stronger tools to do that than available before. But the law also could expose ISOs to damages should they unwittingly hire sales representatives who use somebody else’s stolen …
Read More »MasterCard to Buy U.K. ACH and Faster-Payments Operator VocaLink for $920 Million
Confirming months of speculation, MasterCard Inc. announced Thursday that it has a definitive deal to acquire VocaLink Holdings Ltd., operator of the United Kingdom’s automated clearing house and faster-payments systems, for £700 million, or approximately $920 million, in cash. London-based VocaLink operates BACS, the U.K.’s ACH network, as well as the …
Read More »Eye on Earnings: Visa Europe Acquisition Crimps Visa Inc.’s Profit; PayPal Volumes Grow
Visa Inc.’s combined U.S. credit and debit card purchase volume grew nearly 10% in the quarter ending June 30, but the payment network’s net income plunged 76% mainly because of its costs to acquire Visa Europe. PayPal Holdings Inc., meanwhile, saw its volumes and bottom line increase in the second …
Read More »Eye on Debit: Pulse’s Volume Plunge Expected To Hit Bottom; EMV Still Crimping Blackhawk
Dollar volume on Discover Financial Services’ Pulse electronic funds transfer network declined 9% in the second quarter, but that was an improvement from the first quarter’s 15% plunge and the bottom is in sight, Discover said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the impact of grocery stores’ reluctance to accept credit cards for …
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