Ten months after prepaid payments specialist Green Dot Corp. made amends with investor Harvest Capital Strategies LLC over a dispute about the company’s direction, Green Dot is adding a Harvest executive as an observer and advisor to its board of directors, the company announced Monday. Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot says Jeffrey …

Decoupled debit programs may yet yield rewards for merchants, especially as they look for ways to circumvent payment networks and spur loyalty among consumers. That’s the take from a new report, “Decoupled Debit: The Start of Mainstream Adoption?” issued by Mercator Advisory Group Inc. Decoupled debit is not a new …

VeriFone Systems Inc. acknowledged that hackers targeted two dozen convenience stores in an attempt to get at sensitive payment data by infiltrating the point-of-sale terminal maker’s corporate network in January. The confirmation follows a report Tuesday on KrebsOnSecurity.com that disclosed the attack. The site, which specializes in information-technology threats and …

Processor First Data Corp. and Fleetcor Technologies Inc. are forming a joint venture to consolidate their gift card businesses, First Data announced Monday. The joint venture, whose name was not released, combines First Data’s gift card business, digital gift-card provider Transaction Wireless Inc., and its Gyft unit, with Fleetcor’s Stored …

As the U.S. payments industry continues its massive migration to EMV, issues here and there, such as payment cards being left behind in ATMs, pop up. About six months after INTRUST Bank completed its ATM EMV conversion a year ago, the problem of unrecovered cards started, says Joe Morin, ATM …

Payment card maker CPI Card Group Inc. says it will focus on small and mid-size issuers migrating from magnetic stripe cards to cards bearing an EMV chip in 2017 as it contends with a saturating market for the advanced cards. As larger banks and credit unions complete their migration programs, …

The cofounders of Revel Systems, an early maker of iPad-based point-of-sale systems, have left the company following a fresh investment by private-equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, which has long been active in the payments industry. The press release from Welsh does not say why cofounders Lisa Falzone, who …

Merchant processor Vantiv Inc. has agreed to offer a mobile point-of-sale platform from CardFlight Inc. The platform, called SwipeSimple, includes an EMV reader, a mobile app for iOS and Android, and a back-office reporting portal. New York-based CardFlight says the devices will be co-branded with Vantiv’s branding and will be …

Independent sales organization Total Merchant Services Inc. has added its Groovv POS system to its free hardware program, a move that places all of its products in the program. Prior to this week’s announcement, only point-of-sale terminals were part of the program, says Woodland Hills, Calif.-based TMS. This should make it …

The total number of Visa Inc. credit and debit cards bearing an EMV chip numbered 408.1 million at the end of December, Visa announced Thursday. That’s a 2.1% increase from the 399.9 million tally at the end of November. Of the total, 219.4 million are debit cards and 188.7 million …