The newly-signed trade agreement between the United States and China, the number-one and number-two global economies, respectively, finally provides an avenue for U.S. payments firms to operate independently in China. Joint payments ventures with a local Chinese partner have long been the norm, but the new U.S.-China trade agreement—signed Jan. …

Acquirers are jumping into 2020 with major rebranding and PCI-compliance programs. First up is National Payment Systems. The Portland, Ore.-based company has a new name—Boom Commerce—and has expanded its executive team, the payments provider announced.  Helping to propel this shift is a credit facility with Acrewood Holdings LLC, a Bryn …

Even though contactless credit and debit card transactions made by tapping a card against a point-of-sale device rely on the same standard as EMV dipped transactions, consumers have different impressions of the security benefits, a newly released study says. Indeed, 81% of the 1,350 consumers surveyed for the “Emerging Trends at …

College and university payment and identity-services provider Transact Campus Inc. announced it is adding support for Google Pay, enabling eligible students to use Google Pay on campus. Phoenix-based Transact Campus said its Transact Mobile Credential for Google Pay, which is the mobile-payment app on most Android smart phones, will be …

Consumers with Alexa, Amazon.com Inc.’s voice assistant, enabled in their cars and trucks soon will be able to pay for fuel at more than 11,500 Exxon and Mobil gas stations from inside their vehicles. Announced Monday, the service, compatible with vehicles with Alexa built in or enabled with an Echo …

Bots operated by criminals did more than leave lumps of coal for merchants and consumers this holiday shopping season. During Black Friday week, criminals used mobile devices to create new accounts to mimic new customers and initiate transactions through an established and seemingly genuine account, according to LexisNexis Risk Solutions. …

Despite 96% of U.S. financial-services organizations considering their technology security as adequate, 62% of those responding to a Thales survey said they experienced a breach. That’s according to the recently released 2019 Thales Data Threat Report.  Commissioned by Thales, the survey of 1,200 information technology and data security professionals and …

A new set of security protocols to better safeguard online connections within the financial-services industry is in the offing. Securing and trusting these connections is a critical piece of the payments infrastructure. Experts say the underlying standards they are built on—called public key infrastructure—need updating. That’s why the Accredited Standards …

Online shopping on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, increased 19.6% year-over-year, while in-store shopping that day increased 4.2%, according to Adobe Digital Insights and Fiserv Inc., respectively. Consumers did not disappoint in early holiday shopping results. Adobe Digital Insights, a unit of San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Inc., said consumers …

Expect more consumers to wield their smart phones for their holiday shopping this year. Fully 70% of consumers in the Deloitte 2019 Holiday Retail Survey plan to make a holiday purchase using a smart phone. That’s up from 67% in 2018 and from 59% in 2017. A separate Visa Inc. …