Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
A federal appeals court on Thursday threw out a massive agreement initially reached four years ago over card-network interchange and acceptance rules, drawing a sudden veil of uncertainty over crucial legal matters much of the payments industry had thought were all but settled. In a 41-page opinion studded with sometimes …
Read More »Payments Stocks Flattened Again as Brexit Downdraft Grows
A second day of market turmoil in the wake of the United Kingdom’s “Brexit” vote to leave the European Union once again took a big bite out of stocks of U.S.-based payments companies with large operations in the U.K. and Europe. For example, on a day when the major market indexes …
Read More »Brexit Vote Bashes U.S. Payments Companies; Long-Term Effects Unclear
Shares of U.S. payments companies fell even farther than the general market Friday as the world absorbed the news from Thursday’s stunning “Brexit” vote in the United Kingdom in which British voters signaled they want to leave the European Union. Whether today’s market carnage is a sign of future long-term …
Read More »Eye on EMV: Chip Card Counts Grows by 1.4 Billion; Discover Streamlines EMV Processes
With the U.S. EMV transition just getting into high gear, the number of EMV chip cards worldwide increased last year by 1.4 billion, or 41%, the EMVCo standards body reported Thursday. Meanwhile, Discover Financial Services joined the other three U.S. general-purpose payment card networks in taking steps to speed up …
Read More »Visa Claims Analytics Service Cuts Fuel-Pump Fraud in Half
Visa Inc. on Tuesday reported that gas stations using a service it introduced two years ago to prevent card fraud at fuel pumps has reduced counterfeit fraud by 54%. Visa says that more than 35,000 U.S. gas stations now use its Visa Transaction Advisor technology at the pump, and that …
Read More »A Deal With Shell Boosts Chase Pay, But the Challenge of Consumer Usage Remains
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is lining up the necessary elements for its Chase Pay mobile service. The bank announced Thursday that more than 14,000 Shell Oil Co. locations potentially could accept the nascent mobile wallet. Chase shared few details, such as when Chase Pay might be accepted at Shell stations, …
Read More »As the mPOS Revolution Spreads to More Merchants, Players Must Build Scale Fast
The mobile point-of-sale revolution started in North America with smart-phone readers from startups like Square Inc. and established software houses like Intuit Inc., but it’s now a global phenomenon with broad implications for entrenched players and newcomers alike, according to research released Monday. Indeed, mobile POS gear—chiefly phones or tablets …
Read More »Nearly 40% of U.S. Visa Credit and Debit Cards Now Have an EMV Chip
Nearly 283 million Visa-branded credit and debit cards issued by U.S. financial institutions now have an EMV chip, Visa Inc. reports. In addition, some 1.1 million U.S. merchant locations that accept Visa cards now take chip cards. In the latest of the payment card networks’ updates on the U.S. chip …
Read More »The PCI Council Updates its Payment-Processing Software Rules
The PCI Security Standards Council on Friday released version 3.2 of its Payment Application Data Security Standard, which sets rules for payment-processing software. The new PA-DSS aligns with the recently updated main security standard, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard version 3.2. Today’s update was expected, as the Wakefield, …
Read More »Expenses From the Home Depot and Target Data Breaches Surpass $500 Million
This week’s revelation by The Home Depot Inc. that it has incurred $263 million in expenses from its 2014 data breach means that the home-improvement retailer’s breach costs, together with those of another big-box retailer, Target Corp., now total $554 million. In a quarterly regulatory filing Tuesday, Atlanta-based Home Depot …
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