Credit Cards

ThreatMetrix Inc., a provider of digital-identity and authentication services, reports that its network detected and stopped 144 million cyberattacks in the second quarter, a 100% increase from 2015’s second quarter. ThreatMetrix says its Digital Identity Network from April through June also stopped 300 million bot attacks in which hackers take …

Chinese tourism abroad has already taken off, and it’s expected to grow ever larger in coming years, lifting sales for merchants in the United States and other parts of the world. The latest company to set itself up to cash in on the trend is Marriott International Inc., which on …

Artificial-intelligence technology, on which a number of payments applications have begun to rely over the past year or so, just keeps getting hotter. Nearly 700 funding deals for AI startups were concluded in 2016, up 33% from 2015, according to a report released this week by CBInsights, a New York …

Fraudsters are hitting fuel pumps hard as they hunt for the dwindling number of places where they can take advantage of magnetic-stripe payments while EMV chip card acceptance takes hold in U.S. stores and restaurants. Last week, fleet-fueling payment card specialist WEX Inc. revealed that it increased its second-quarter provision …

Millennials don’t care for or trust the traditional advertising tactics that have been a staple of the payments industry for eons—84% say they don’t like them at all. For consumer-facing brands, the implications of these findings are quite significant—particularly since cultivating and rewarding customer loyalty is a foundational marketing element. …

Mastercard Inc. reported Thursday that its switched transaction volume grew 17% in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Discover Financial Services’ Pulse debit network saw volume jump 15% after growing slightly in the first quarter following a long period of decline. Purchase, N.Y.-based Mastercard said its transaction count hit 16 billion versus …

With a rapidly expanding e-commerce market, online fraud-detection and -prevention efforts are poised to grow over the next few years. Merchants are expected to spend $9.3 billion annually on these efforts by 2022, says Juniper Research. That’s a 22% increase from the 2017 spending total, though it pales in comparison …

Visa Inc.’s top brass talked at length Thursday about payments opportunities abroad, but they also noted that U.S. payment volumes, particularly in credit cards, did quite well in the quarter ending June 30. “Our global business benefited from an overall healthy economy as payments volume grew in every major region,” …

Just over 6 billion payment cards now bear the UnionPay logo, and in 2016 the Chinese network accounted for 43% of all general-purpose credit and debit cards in the world, up from 41% in 2015, according to new findings from London-based Retail Banking Research. RBR estimates the worldwide payment card …

Visa Inc.’s “Cashless Challenge” campaign to promote electronic payments is not finding much support from the ATM industry, to put it mildly. Last week, Visa announced the campaign, which will award up to $500,000 to 50 eligible U.S. food-service owners who convert their point-of-sale systems to electronic payments only. Visa …