Fiserv Inc. said this week its First Data unit has performed the first PIN-on-mobile contactless transaction involving only a commercially available mobile device. Observers say the breakthrough could expand the availability of PIN-on-mobile technology significantly by allowing small merchants like food-truck operators and other mobile sellers to accept card payments …
Read More »As Mobile Wallets Proliferate Globally, Pricing Emerges As a Key Tactic for Growth
Mobile wallets aren’t the revolutionary products they were a few years ago, but as more and more entities launch new ones across the world, the apps are getting much more diverse and cheaper to use. That’s because, while sponsors continue to battle for adoption, they’re finding pricing to be a …
Read More »A German Company Unveils a Checkout Buster That Relies on Breakthroughs in RFID Scanning
As merchants and their technology partners continue to develop technology to ditch the familiar checkout, a German entrant on Monday demonstrated a system that would use radio-frequency identification to charge customers as they walk out with their goods. The system, dubbed “payfree,” involves an app that consumers would install in …
Read More »How You Walk Could Some Day Soon Let You Pay to Ride
Two big trends in payments, mass-transit ticketing and advanced authentication technology, could come together soon as Mastercard Inc. develops a system that could identify users simply by the way they walk. Working on the idea that each person has a unique gait, Mastercard and its NuData Security unit are talking …
Read More »With Expanded Merchant Business Thanks to Worldpay, FIS Seeks to Exploit Its Acquiring Chops
When Fidelity National Information Services Inc. closed on its $43 billion acquisition of Worldpay Inc. last summer, the payments industry knew the massive deal would boost FIS instantly into the top ranks of global merchant processors. On Thursday, the company let the world know just how big its position in …
Read More »The New Global Payments Looks to Value to Offset Impending Visa Rate Changes
News of impending interchange-rate revisions from Visa Inc. may have roiled the payments industry, but for processing giants like Global Payments Inc., the impact will simply be business as usual. Top Global executives made that point crystal clear Wednesday. “We see these [rate changes] all the time. We have to accommodate …
Read More »RILA Calls for Action on the Fed’s Debit Cap As Powell Testifies Before Congress
Federal Reserve Board chairman Jerome Powell is testifying before Congress this week, and mixed in with questions and answers about interest rates, economic growth, and employment could be queries about when the Fed is going to update its cap on the fees issuers can charge for debit card transactions. At …
Read More »Washington’s ‘Vitriolic’ Mood Isn’t Slowing the March of Major Regulation Affecting Payments
There’s plenty of proposed legislation affecting the payments business just now, and casting a long shadow over all of it is the present atmosphere of partisanship. “The mood in Washington is vitriolic, childish. It’s all-out war,” said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government relations for the Electronic Transactions Association, …
Read More »Surcharging Is Poised to Gain Momentum As State Bans Fall And Acquirers Spot Opportunities
Surcharges on credit card transactions could pick up momentum now that only four states effectively ban the practice, a panel of experts indicated Wednesday at a merchant-acquiring trade show. That momentum may benefit not only merchants wary of card-acceptance costs but also merchant-service providers that focus on surcharging as a …
Read More »Fiserv Tugs the Curtain Back a Bit on Early Gains From Its Big First Data Acquisition
Six months after closing on its $22 billion acquisition of First Data Corp., Fiserv Inc. on Tuesday dropped some tantalizing hints about early benefits the deal has generated for the combined company. First Data’s Clover app-based platform for merchant checkouts, for example, saw its gross payment volume grow fully 40% …
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