Jamie Walker’s growth mission as the newly anointed chief executive at Elavon Inc., the acquiring arm of U.S. Bancorp, is squarely focused on e-commerce and furthering the company’s partnerships. That isn’t to set aside its other distribution channels, such as independent sales organizations or its direct-sales efforts, Walker tells Digital …
Read More »TSYS’s Netspend Unit To Pay $53 Million As Part of FTC Settlement
Netspend, the prepaid card unit of processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), will pay $53 million as part of a settlement it reached with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations concerning how it handled some marketing materials. The settlement, announced Friday, calls for Netspend to set aside $40 million to …
Read More »What is the Future of Mobile Wallets? Anticipation and Waiting, Expert Panel Says
As mobile-wallet backers wrestle with the right mix of features and functions—loyalty, offers, and payments—to incentivize consumers and merchants to use their products, they should get accustomed to waiting. That was the word Thursday in Orlando, Fla., from speakers at the 2017 Payments Summit, sponsored by the Secure Technology Alliance. …
Read More »Payments Pros Confront an IoT Challenge: Securing Devices Without Impeding Usage
With a forecast of 15 billion new devices as part of the Internet of Things potentially coming online as payments devices by 2021, securing these devices, whether they are cars, wearables, or appliances, is emerging as a top concern. “We are seeing a huge increase in inadequately protected devices,” Graeme …
Read More »Want Contactless Payments in the U.S.? Don’t Hold Your Breath, Say Industry Experts
Contactless payments may seem like the next evolution of the U.S. payments industry, but the challenges confronting that technology may be greater than those of the ongoing chip migration, industry observers suggested on Tuesday at an industry trade show. “At the moment, contactless is much more complex, more expensive,” Allen …
Read More »With an Update, Square Shaves More Seconds From Contact EMV Processing Time
Merchant acquirer Square Inc. has again improved the speed of EMV transactions made with its contact chip card reader, lowering the speed from 4.2 seconds, as reported in November, to 3.6 seconds, as noted by Jack Dorsey, Square chief executive and chairman, in a Twitter post on Friday. Earlier in …
Read More »Cloud-Based TouchPass Brings a Subscription Model to Transit Agencies for Fare Payments
The subscription model is coming to payments for transit fares. Delerrok Inc., a transit fare-system provider, launched TouchPass this week, a fare-collection service that transit operators pay for via a subscription. TouchPass, a product of transit veterans Bob Hamilton, Gary Yamamura, and Susumu Kusakabe, who is a patent holder for …
Read More »Fill It Up: Using ExxonMobil’s Speedpass+ at the Pump
For a moment, I thought I was a thief. For a split second as I drove away from the ExxonMobil fuel pump, I thought I forgot to pay. In actuality, I had just used the ExxonMobil Speedpass+ app to make a contactless payment for fuel for the first time. ExxonMobil …
Read More »Merchants Begin to Ponder the Possible Impact of Faster-Payments Initiatives
As the sweeping plan to update the U.S. automated clearing house network and other parts of the country’s payments system—an initiative known as faster payments—draws nearer, the first hints of what it could mean for merchants are being discussed. The faster-payments project, under the aegis of the Federal Reserve, will …
Read More »No Easy Answers as E-Retailers Contend With Compounding Payments Developments
Rattle off a selection of payment trends—EMV, tokenization, fraud—and many e-retailers may be beset by apprehension. That’s especially true if the retailer looks to support emerging payment types, according to Matt Herren, director of payments analytics at Computer Services Inc., a Paducah, Ky.-based financial-technology provider. Herren, speaking at the Merchant …
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