Debit Cards

Curiosity, and a bit of confusion, about what constitutes credit card surcharging and cash-discount programs surfaced this week at the Northeast Acquirers Association annual conference in Uncasville, Conn. During a panel discussion about the benefits and challenges of credit card surcharging and cash-discount programs for merchants, participants explained how their …

North America’s largest payments company on Thursday said it expects to receive a $1 billion bonus from the federal tax-reform bill passed into law in December. In contrast with its rival Mastercard Inc., which reported earlier in the day it recorded an $873 million charge in the fourth quarter related …

Mastercard Inc. took an $873 million, one-time charge in 2017’s fourth quarter related to the new federal tax law, and the company reported Thursday that the cobranded Cabela’s Visa card will switch to the Mastercard brand. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that President Donald Trump signed into law in …

Processor Fiserv Inc. reported that its Accel debit network has added new transaction-routing options, including the ability to process signature-based transactions. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is using the new signature service, Fiserv said. Accel also will make signatures optional for merchants beginning in April, as are the four general-purpose card networks. …

The U.S. Payments Forum on Monday reported that the vast majority of large U.S. merchants now accept EMV chip cards. With the conversion to chip from the old magnetic-stripe payment technology at the point of sale now over the hump, though still far from complete, advocates are looking at fuel …

Seven months after paying $260 million for Sage Payment Solutions, the U.S. merchant-services arm of Sage Group plc, investment firm GTCR LLC is giving it a new name—Paya—and a refreshed strategy to add more merchants to its portfolio. Announced Tuesday, the Paya name for the Reston, Va.-based payments provider signifies a …

Investors gave Starbucks Corp. the cold shoulder Friday morning on news that despite a record $6.1 billion in quarterly revenues, growth is slowing in the United States. But the coffee giant’s payments business has several initiatives brewing, executives reported late Thursday. A leader in closed-loop prepaid cards and mobile payments …

Last year was a year of revival for Discover Financial Services’ long-suffering Pulse debit network, which posted a 19% fourth-quarter increase in year-over-year dollar volume on 15% more transactions. The strong finish—$42.4 billion in volume on 1.03 billion transactions—brought Pulse’s full-year volume to $157.1 billion, up 14% from $138 billion …

Fraud-prevention specialist Tender Armor LLC intends to use the proceeds from its latest funding round to hire more personnel and launch its marketing efforts. Announced Thursday, the funding round, for an unspecified amount (though characterized as “multimillion”), is a big step in growing the startup, says Madeline K. Aufseeser, chief …

For decades, merchants have had to install specially designed and built devices to allow customers to enter their personal identification numbers for debit card payments. And lately, that has been the case for EMV cards, as well. But on Wednesday, that changed as the PCI Security Standards Council published a …