Debit Cards

As New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority inaugurates contactless payment for fares Friday, major card brands are intensely marketing the tap-and-pay service. Mastercard Inc. announced its Fareback Friday program to reward cardholders for paying for their New York subway rides with a contactless Mastercard product. Consumers may be able to get …

Cardtronics plc said its Allpoint ATM network and Visa Inc. reached an agreement to waive ATM fees for travelers visiting the United States from Southeast Asia who have a Visa travel prepaid card or debit card from certain financial institutions. Allpoint counts more than 40,000 U.S. ATMs. Lightspeed POS Inc., …

Visa Inc.’s chief executive this week questioned the drive for real-time payments by U.S. banks and merchants, but also argued Visa’s recent acquisition of business-to-business payments processor Earthport plc will help the company expand real-time payment capability beyond cardholders. Visa closed on London-based Earthport last month after winning a bidding …

EMV chip cards continued to gain share of U.S. card payments in early 2019, although their conquest is not yet complete more than three years after the payment card networks’ EMV liability shifts. But Visa Inc. says counterfeit fraud is dropping sharply, as intended. Visa reported Thursday that 3.5 million …

Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc. said malware was discovered and removed from its point-of-sale system at some Checkers and Rally’s locations. Checkers said 15% of its nearly 900 locations were affected. The timing of the malware exposure varies, with one Los Angeles location infected from Dec. 17, 2015 to March 26, …

Payments provider Electronic Merchant Systems announced its affiliation with the National Football League’s Cleveland Browns Proud Partner program. Paysafe Group said Philip McHugh will become its chief executive beginning June 24. He replaces Joel Leonoff, who will become vice chairman of the Paysafe board of directors. McHugh comes to Paysafe …

Klarna, the installment-payment specialist, has released an app that enables consumers to shop a variety of merchants and pay with Klarna without leaving the app. Announced Tuesday, the Klarna app presents the retailer’s site with a footer containing a Pay with Klarna button. When selecting that option, the shopper can pay …

Payments observers are tempted to think of the $21.5 billion proposed merger of Global Payments Inc. and Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), announced Tuesday, as the latest megadeal in a series initiated in January when Fiserv Inc. said it would acquire First Data Corp. That announcement was followed by the …

Facing major consolidation among rival processors. Global Payments Inc. and Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) made it official Tuesday they are merging in an all-stock deal that values TSYS at $21.5 billion and will leave Global with 52% of the combined entity. The acquisition is expected to close in the …

Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft each briefly enjoyed a market capitalization greater than $1 trillion. The two dominant global payment networks, Mastercard and Visa, aspire to join this august, and for the moment, memberless club. In the near term, the networks could grow on autopilot. However, inevitably diminishing retail-payments growth in …