Walmart Pay, the mobile-payments app developed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is now broadly available to consumers as part of version 6.8 of the retailing titan’s shopping app, introduced this week for Apple Inc. smart phones. The app update, available on the iTunes store, says Walmart Pay will be “available in …
Read More »Eye on Data Breaches: A ‘Scary’ Legal Standard; Details Released on the Coming PCI Update
As federal regulators increasingly zero in on data breaches, lawyers at a payments conference on Wednesday warned that organizations that suffer breaches are likely to have a tougher time avoiding legal liability in the years ahead. And the PCI Security Standards Council disclosed some of the major changes in its …
Read More »Visa Inc. Revises Deal To Acquire Visa Europe, and Pays More for Client Incentives
Visa Inc. will be paying more upfront cash to acquire Visa Europe Ltd., and it paid more in client incentives in the quarter ending March 31. But the leading payment card network still managed to turn a tidy profit and saw double-digit increases in U.S. transaction volumes even though volume …
Read More »Banks Must Stop Being ‘the Quiet Party’ in the Mobile-Wallet Battle, an Expert Warns
Despite all the fuss the payments industry is making over mobile wallets, financial institutions have been remarkably low-key. With the notable exception of giants like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Capital One Financial Corp., nearly all banks and credit unions have ceded the initiative to nonbank players like Apple Inc., …
Read More »Following Real-Time Bill Pay, TCH Sees a Follow-Up With Speedier B2B, B2C Payments
When The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC enlisted processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) last fall to help it launch real-time payments in the United States, it wasn’t ready to say when the system would go live. On Monday, TCH answered that question and also cleared up what types …
Read More »NACHA Reports a Banner 2015, With Stepped-up Growth And New Applications
The automated clearing house network reported stepped-up transaction volume with each set of quarterly statistics it released last year, and on Thursday it confirmed officially that 2015 was a banner year for growth. The payments network, which connects virtually every financial institution in the country, handled more than 24 billion …
Read More »The ‘Pays’ Win Plenty of Awareness and Adoption—But Usage Remains a Struggle
When it comes to mobile-payments services like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, the payments industry appears to be seeing adoption. But it could be years before it sees steady usage. The adoption picture, as defined by cardholders loading a card, is improving for Apple Pay, according to the latest numbers …
Read More »Apple and Samsung Tech, Along With Host Card Emulation, Drive NFC Usage
In another indication of the rebound of near-field communication for payments, some 148 million consumers globally will use the contactless technology in a mobile or wearable device to buy something this year, according to the latest report from Juniper Research, released Monday. Fully 70% of these consumers will be wielding …
Read More »For Payments Newbies, Funding Deals Remain Plentiful But Checks Get Smaller
Funding activity for startups in the payments business continued at a hectic pace over the past six months—but the total dollars invested fell through the floor. There were 75 funding deals in the first quarter totaling $396 million, according to the latest data from CB Insights, a New York City-based …
Read More »Eye on EMV: Terminal Hiccups, Petroleum’s Challenge, And a Dual-Interface Future
Of the challenges presented by the U.S. payments systems’ transition to the EMV chip card standard, one of the least reported is confusion among both consumers and merchants caused by the sudden appearance of puzzling terminal messages. Meanwhile, new numbers indicate petroleum marketers face a daunting challenge meeting their October …
Read More »