Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
By John Stewart Evidence emerged this week that the Durbin Amendment may not be cutting debit card acceptance costs for merchants as effectively as its backers intended. Nor has it prompted many merchants to pass on their savings to consumers, according to a paper published in Economic Quarterly, a publication …
Read More »How the Spread of Digital Payments Is Driving Online Links for Remote Devices
The increasing penetration of digital payments worldwide is helping drive conversion of point-of-sale terminals, vending machines, and parking meters from standalone devices to connected machines, according to a report released Tuesday by Berg Insight, a Gothenberg, Sweden-based research firm that follows the wireless market. Worldwide, Berg forecasts the number of …
Read More »Why Signature Authentication Trumps PINs When It Comes to EMV Credit Cards
By John Stewart Just 45 days to go until the Oct. 1 deadline for EMV in the United States, and among the issues over which merchants are still wrangling with banks is whether EMV chip cards should be universally issued with PINs—credit cards as well as debit. Merchant groups have …
Read More »Infinite Peripherals Rides the mPOS Wave With Add-on Devices for Larger Retailers
By John Stewart At Infinite Peripherals Inc., there’s nothing peripheral about the mobile point of sale. The Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based company, whose stock in trade is not the mobile device but just about anything that can be connected to it, is growing rapidly in tandem with the soaring popularity …
Read More »DTN Readers Are More Skeptical Than Experts on Benefits of First Data IPO
By John Stewart When First Data Corp. last month formally let the world know it intends to make an initial public offering of stock, the massive processor said it plans to use the IPO’s proceeds to reduce its big debt load. Some experts said this could free up capital so …
Read More »Apple Pay Could Reap a Volume Bonanza as It Includes AmEx Corporate Cards
Corporate card stalwart American Express Co. says corporate cards it issues on behalf of U.S. employers now can be used with Apple Pay. AmEx says its portfolio is the first major corporate card file to be activated for Apple Inc.’s mobile-payment service. Apple Pay’s potential for additional spend with corporate …
Read More »Looking for Nationwide EMV by October? Don’t Hold Your Breath, Surveys Say
With just 55 days to go, separate studies released this week show that the Oct. 1 target date for the U.S. to adopt the EMV chip card standard is looking more and more like a psychological deadline than a real one. Both merchants and credit and debit card issuers are …
Read More »It May Be POS Alphabet Soup, But It’s Getting Easier for ISVs To Assume ISO Functions
By John Stewart With the business of selling merchant accounts growing more technology-based every day, how are processors going to recruit new independent sales organizations that have the necessary expertise? For at least some processors, the answer lies in inducing independent software vendors, known as ISVs, to become ISOs as …
Read More »EMV Becomes All-Consuming Topic at a Trade Show for the Broader POS Industry
The broader business of point-of-sale technology has many concerns that include payments but aren’t limited to that function. These days, though, it may seem that payments—and especially EMV—is all this business talks about. This was certainly the case this week at RetailNOW, a four-day conference in Orlando, Fla., produced by …
Read More »As MCX Plans Pilot for Late August, Observers Ponder Fate of Its CurrentC Wallet
By John Stewart After a three-year gestation period, the Merchant Customer Exchange’s CurrentC mobile-payment service is planning to launch a pilot in Columbus, Ohio, during the last week of August, a source with knowledge of the matter tells Digital Transactions News. The pilot will involve locations belonging to a handful …
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