Competitive Strategies

Discover Financial Services expects to incur $35 million in incremental costs next year for Europay-MasterCard-Visa chip card issuance and acceptance, chief executive David W. Nelms said Wednesday. Nelms also said Discover will be an active player in mobile payments. Nelms made his remarks at an investor conference sponsored by The …

  Fast-food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A Inc. has jumped into the mobile-payments frying pan with the debut Monday of a mobile payment and ordering app. Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A says the app, available for iOS and Android smart phones, can be used for mobile ordering at 130 Chick-fil-A restaurants in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, …

Financial institutions, processors, and regulators have been moving toward systems that speed up electronic payments, but ironically their success in replacing paper checks with electronic processing may undermine their efforts. That’s because image exchange, the process by which paper checks are replaced by electronic images for clearing, has driven down …

Gateway and e-commerce services provider Digital River Inc. on Monday joined some other payments companies that have experienced the wrath, or panic, of investors on news that their relationship with their largest customer was threatened. Shares of Minnetonka, Minn.-based Digital River plunged 22.7%, falling $5.80 to close at $19.71, after …

By Rick Oglesby, Double Diamond Payments Research Apple Pay was the talk of the Money20/20 trade show last month, but should it have been? Before Apple Pay can become a dominant payment vehicle, merchants need the ability to accept it (only about 2% of merchant locations can do so today), …

MasterCard Inc. said Monday it is taking a two-pronged approach to developing interactive payment cards with an investment in Dynamics Inc., a maker of interactive payment cards, and a deal to commercialize the devices. Pittsburgh-based Dynamics makes payment cards that have features such as buttons, display and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Consumers can …

  When negotiating a merchant-portfolio acquisition, buyers and sellers may want to examine more than the usual terms and conditions for elements that could affect the value, and potential, of the portfolio, advises an analyst. While there are obvious terms to look for, such as those directly related to ownership …

As small online merchants prepare for holiday-season sales, they’re seeking out financing to support extra help and added order fulfillment, and that’s boosting new financing options from online processors. PayPal Inc., for example, now has 20,000 mostly e-commerce businesses using its 15-month-old PayPal Working Capital merchant cash-advance service. It has …

Over the past several years, during his conference calls with analysts to review Discover Financial Services’ quarterly earnings, chief executive David W. Nelms occasionally took swipes at Visa Inc.’s efforts to maintain its dominant debit card market share in the wake of the Durbin Amendment, which severely undercut Visa’s Interlink …

  The 870-page tome of proposed rules issued Nov. 13 by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to govern prepaid cards may end up benefitting the top prepaid card issuers, says securities-rating agency Fitch Ratings. The regulations would require so-called “Know Before You Owe” disclosures and aim to improve consumers’ access to account …