Competitive Strategies

• Processor First Data Corp. and terminal maker Ingenico Group announced a new solution supporting EMV tip adjust and the common application identifier for debit and running on Ingenico smart terminals. First Data has certified the solution on its Omaha platform. • The Merchant Advisory Group launched KnowYourPayments.com, a Web …

Bitcoin watchers held their breath over the weekend when the celebrated “halving” took place, abruptly chopping in half the incentive those who produce Bitcoin receive and raising questions about the impact the event would have on the 7-year-old cryptocurrency. The halving, which is part of Bitcoin’s basic code and so …

Despite the hoopla surrounding EMV acceptance, and the constant promotions from acquirers and payments providers touting EMV-capable equipment, at least one acquirer, Square Inc., continues to believe there is a market for magnetic-stripe readers. A direct-mail piece from Square mailed late last week touts its magnetic-stripe reader along with its …

Fourth-quarter transaction decline rates for credit and debit cards used for subscription payments increased to 15.9% from a first-quarter 2015 low of 14.4%, based on the value of the transaction, according to a report from Recurly Inc., a recurring-payments specialist. The “Recurly Subscription Snapshot,” which analyzed 25 million recurring payments …

• Early Warning Services LLC said the three latest banks to start offering real-time person-to-person payments on its clearXchange network are Capital One, Chase, and Wells Fargo. ClearXchange members Bank of America and U.S. Bank had already introduced the service. As things stand, Chase customers can send and receive payments …

The acquiring business is accustomed to a slow rate of change, but that deliberate pace is masking radical underlying shifts in how merchants handle payments and whom they deal with for processing services, according to research at First Annapolis Consulting, Annapolis, Md. Change comes so slowly in this business that …

A central Illinois grocery-store chain will expand online and add mobile payments beginning this fall. The service enables consumers to use credit and debit cards along with electronic benefits transfer cards to pay for orders, says Ithaca, N.Y.-based Rosie Applications Inc., the vendor providing the technology. The move by Quincy, …

Moneris Solutions USA, the U.S. arm of Canada-based Moneris Solutions Corp., appears to have suitors, according to a recent Bloomberg.com report. Moneris is a joint venture between RBC Financial Group and BMO Bank of Montreal. Bloomberg.com reports that merchant processor Vantiv Inc. and Warburg Pincus LLC, a New York-based private …

• ATM network operator Cardtronics plc announced organizational changes that include chief financial officer Edward H. West taking on the additional role of chief operations officer and North American Business Group president David Dove leaving the company later this year. Jonathan Simpson-Dent, who had been managing director of Cardtronics Europe, …

The password is one of the oldest authentication tools known to man, and now it is rapidly becoming the least respected among security experts for use online or in-app. Consumers’ use of easily guessed codes, coupled with a recent barrage of data breaches, has these experts predicting passwords will fade …