In the increasingly competitive market for tabletop point-of-sale terminals, providers are looking for some magic. One of them, Redwood City, Calif.-based E la Carte, said this week it is changing its name to Presto, which means “fast” in Italian, as the company points out, but also adds that the word …
Read More »Cash Demand Isn’t Going Away, So Fiserv Expands Its CardFree Cash Service to More ATMs
Bank processors over the past several years have worked to combine cardless technology with a continuing consumer demand for cash, a trend that took on momentum on Wednesday with an announcement from Fiserv Inc. that three ATM manufacturers are now supporting the company’s 3-year-old CardFree Cash service. ATM makers Genmega, …
Read More »Litecoin Founder Charlie Lee: ‘We’re Targeted Toward Payments’
Lately, the cryptocurrency craze has raised any number of questions, but probably the most pressing one for the payments business is whether any of these hundreds of tokens can ever succeed as an actual payment device. But while fluctuating trading values plague all of the digital currencies, one stands out …
Read More »NFC Specialist NXT-ID Reports an Encouraging 2017 And Promises More Products for 2018
NXT-ID Inc., a provider of authentication and contactless-payment technology, reported on Monday that its revenue tripled last year compared to 2016 while its adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes, and amortization swung positive. The Melbourne, Fla.-based company is best-known in the payments market for its Fit Pay Inc. unit, which …
Read More »Both Contactless EMV Cards And Wallets Should Stock Issuers’ Offerings, Expert Argues
As financial institutions move beyond mag-stripe payment cards, they face a crucial question: should we support mobile wallets, and if we do, should we also issue contactless cards? In the eyes of at least one observer, the answer is an unequivocal “yes” and “yes,” even though the former would seem …
Read More »An Expert Predicts Gas Stations Will Fall Short of Meeting Their EMV Deadline
The U.S. petroleum industry has until October 2020 to comply with the card networks’ deadline to accept EMV chip cards. Will it make it? According to one expert observer, the odds aren’t good. “Some will not be ready,” Terry Mahoney, a partner who follows the industry at Chicago-based W. Capra …
Read More »Visa Gets Set for the Next Big EMV Phase—Making Contactless Transactions Routine
With the EMV conversion mostly behind it, the United States is ripe for another big change at the point of sale—adoption of tap-and-go payments, says Visa Inc. With 96% of its payment volume now chip-based, “the next thing we’re focusing on is contactless,” Stephanie Ericksen, the card network’s vice president …
Read More »A Vending-Payments Processor Applies Cryptocurrency to Crack the Market for Micropayments
Remember micropayments? Most payments providers gave up on this class of electronic payments several years ago when it became apparent that technology couldn’t crack the problem of high-cost transactions applied to very low-value goods. But now at least one player is attacking the market with cryptocurrency. On Track Innovations Ltd., …
Read More »A Scan of 35 Popular Crypto Exchanges Exposes Some Alarmingly Weak Password Policies
With digital currencies booming in popularity over the past year or so, the security of the digital exchanges that convert users’ fiat money into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is coming into clearer focus—and the picture isn’t consistently pretty, according to a survey released this week. Some popular exchanges allow users to …
Read More »A Double-Digit Growth Rate in Wearables Sharpens the Focus for Their Payments Potential
With the introduction of transactional capability on smart watches and fitness trackers like the Apple Watch and Fitbit, the payments industry has eyed wearable devices as a field laden with potential for growth. Just how much growth came into focus this week with new figures and projections from International Data …
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