The Isis mobile-wallet consortium said Wednesday it is activating new wallets at the rate of 20,000 per day. That rate, achieved over the last 30 days, represents a doubling of the rate Isis saw in the previous 30-day period, the company said. The upbeat news from Isis comes as some …
Read More »Stockpile Emerges To Offer Digital Gift Cards Backed by Stock to ‘Everyday’ Consumers
A new type of gift card is set to debut this summer that will be backed not by cash but by shares of stock. The virtual card will come from a startup called Stockpile Inc., which has created a waiting list for interested potential accountholders and is planning to market …
Read More »U.S. Readiness for EMV at a Low Ebb Despite Looming Deadline, Report Warns
By John Stewart With a crucial deadline looming in 2015, the U.S. payments industry will have only partially converted to the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card standard by the end of that year. Indeed, it will likely take years to equip small merchants especially to accept EMV, according to a report …
Read More »Host Card Emulation Takes Another Step with Key Sequent Software Issuance Solution
Sequent Software Inc. on Tuesday launched a solution that will let card issuers take advantage of so-called host card emulation, a protocol that allows issuers to provision digital cards for mobile payments while bypassing the phone-based secure element. With the new solution, issuers will also be able to embed their …
Read More »PayPal Enjoys Another Strong Quarter, Though eBay Boss Says Little About Offline Growth
EBay Inc.’s first-quarter conference call Tuesday was as remarkable for what chief executive John Donahoe did not say as for what he did say. Asked by a stock analyst for an update on PayPal Inc.’s move into physical stores, Donahoe added little to what eBay and its PayPal unit have …
Read More »With Support from Visa And MasterCard, Host Card Emulation Lends New Momentum to NFC
A less costly, software-based way to handle mobile transactions using near-field communication (NFC) technology is expected to begin fueling NFC payments later this year following the release of specifications from both MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. n Support from the two major international card networks comes as demand for HCE-based …
Read More »In a Move Aimed at Aggregators And Small Sellers, Visa Tweaks FANF Fees Effective April 2015
Visa Inc. has tweaked its controversial fixed acquirer network fee (FANF), with the changes scheduled to take effect 12 months from now, according to sources who have seen the changes. A bulletin Visa released last week and circulated to acquirers indicates the modifications to the 2-year-old FANF are aimed chiefly …
Read More »End of Life for Microsoft XP Presents Opportunity for Tablet POS Vendors
With Microsoft Corp. no longer supporting its Windows XP operating system, companies marketing tablet-based point-of-sale gear and software are hoping to garner more business from small and mid-sized businesses looking to replace POS systems that use the outmoded OS. As expected, computing giant Microsoft ceased support for the 12-year-old XP …
Read More »NACHA’s New Same-Day Settlement Plan Draws Plenty of Questions From a Curious Crowd
You might call it the first stop on a long road show looming for automated clearing house network oversight body NACHA’s new proposal for same-day settlement of ACH transactions. The particular stop was a packed session at NACHA’s annual payments conference on Tuesday, where executives from financial institutions and payments …
Read More »Exposure to Card Fraud Spikes in 2013 As Shift to EMV Looms, AFP Survey Reports
Some 43% of businesses report they were exposed to card fraud in 2013, a whopping rise of 14 percentage points from 2012, according to the latest annual fraud survey from the Association of Financial Professionals. Nonetheless, survey respondents are remarkably optimistic about the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card standard, with 92% …
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