Up against determined competition from big technology companies, financial institutions have always reassured themselves that they still have an edge in payments when it comes to consumer trust. Now, that edge appears to be eroding fast. On the question of consumer trust, banks and financial institutions are losing ground to …
Read More »Younger Consumers Inclined To Choose Debit, Especially for the Rewards
Debit-rewards programs offered by banks appear to be rebounding a little, with younger consumers more motivated than other age groups to use them. That’s according to a new report from payments-research firm Mercator Advisory Group Inc. Debit rewards programs fell out of favor with banks following passage of the Durbin …
Read More »Card-Linked Offers Gaining Favor Among Consumers: Survey
Card-linked offers appear to be gaining consumer favor, according to results of a survey from the CardLinx Association, a Burlingame, Calif.-based trade group. Over the past 12 months, consumer use of card-linked offers increased 92%, the association said. It surveyed more than 50 companies. Other survey results show 95% …
Read More »Ingenico And Intel To Develop a Point-of-Sale Tablet Supporting EMV and NFC
Point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico Group and chip-maker Intel Corp. will work on producing a tablet that supports EMV chip card and near-field communication (NFC) transactions, Ingenico announced Thursday. The tablet is in response to the U.S. payment card migration to the EMV chip card standard, and the growing adoption of …
Read More »As EMV Deadline Nears, CardFlight Preps a Mobile Reader for Chip And Signature
Mobile point-of-sale service developer CardFlight Inc. will make an EMV chip card-compatible mobile POS reader available in the second quarter, in anticipation of the Oct. 1 liability shift. That’s the date card fraud at the point of sale is scheduled to shift to the party least prepared for it. The …
Read More »Eye on Risk: CyberSource Offers ‘What-If’ Tool; How Mobile Affects Fraud
Merchants face relentless and ever-changing attempts to make fraudulent online transactions, but measuring the effectiveness of rules in place to counter those attempts takes time. Now, CyberSource, a unit of Visa Inc., is offering a service called Decision Manager Replay that lets merchants test various anti-fraud measures for online transactions …
Read More »Optimal Buys Skrill for $1.2 Billion, Eyes Gaming Opportunities
Online-payments provider Skrill Group has a new owner. United Kingdom-based Optimal Payments Plc is buying London-based Skrill for 1.1 billion euros (U.S. $1.2 billion), Optimal announced Monday. Both companies provide digital-wallet services, with Skrill specializing in wallets for online-gambling users, e-commerce and money transfers. Skrill also offers a payment gateway and …
Read More »Plenti Offers Cross-Merchant Rewards—But Will Consumers Use It?
When the Plenti loyalty program—announced Wednesday by American Express Co.—debuts this spring, it will mark the first time a U.S. consumer-rewards program on a national scale enabled points to be earned and used across multiple merchants. The inaugural group of merchants includes AT&T, ExxonMobil Corp., Macy’s Inc., Nationwide Mutual Insurance …
Read More »The clearXcxhange P2P Payment Service Adds U.S. Bank As An Owner And User
Person-to-person payment company clearXchange has a fifth owner. U.S. Bank, a unit of U.S. Bancorp, said on Tuesday it had invested in the network and plans to offer clearXchange services. Terms were not disclosed. ClearXchange was founded by Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp., and JPMorgan Chase & …
Read More »With Small Merchants Lagging, Visa Embarks on EMV Education Tour to Hit Basics
As the U.S. payment card industry migrates to EMV chip cards, there’s one group to which the payments industry needs to pay special attention. Smaller merchants have little awareness of what EMV is and how their businesses will be affected by it. That’s why Visa Inc. set out Friday on …
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