Amazon.com Inc.’s interest in launching a checking-account-like product, reported Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal, could have deep roots in its strategy both for payments in general and for Amazon Pay, the payment wallet it operates for non-Amazon sites, expert observers say. Talks between the Seattle-based retailing colossus and banks …
Read More »Chase To Offer Canadian Small Businesses Lower Discount Rates for AmEx Payments
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business announced Monday an agreement with JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Chase Merchant Services that the trade group of small and medium-sized merchants says could bring cuts of nearly 50% for accepting American Express Co. cards to its 110,000 members. The Toronto-based CFIB said Chase, its …
Read More »Eye on E-Commerce: Klarna Racks up Gains; PayPal Shuts Down Early In-Store Gambits
Sweden’s Klarna Bank AB enjoyed a good year in 2017, as documented by results the privately held online-checkout and financing specialist released on Wednesday. The firm, which was founded in 2005 and has operated a U.S. unit, Klarna Inc., since 2015, had already achieved distinction by ranking third among so-called …
Read More »Integration Tasks Emerge Now that the Vantiv-Worldpay Merger Is Official
The merger of payment processors Vantiv Inc. and London-based Worldpay Group plc was completed Jan. 16, and up next for leaders of the combined company is integration of operational platforms, selling products to a wider customer base, and achieving their goal of $200 million in cost savings in three years. …
Read More »Mass Card Replacements Wreak Havoc. A Startup Says It Has an Answer
For years, the change in card credentials that occurs when issuers send out replacement plastic has caused heartburn for cardholders and merchants alike. New card numbers, expiration dates, or three-digit card-verification values can help thwart fraud when cards are lost or stolen, but they also wreak havoc with unaware merchants, …
Read More »Apple Pay’s Great Mystery: Why Apple Doesn’t Promote Its Advantages More
As Apple Pay’s global user base climbs to an estimated 127 million individuals, a mystery about why even more consumers don’t use Apple Inc.’s mobile-payment service confounds one researcher. Loup Ventures, a Minneapolis-based venture-capital firm, on Thursday released its annual Apple Pay review. Among its findings is that the estimated …
Read More »Nearly 60% of U.S. Storefronts Are Now Accepting Chip Cards, a Visa Update Shows
Some 2.7 million merchant locations, or 59% of U.S. storefronts, were accepting EMV chip cards as of December, according to the latest update from Visa Inc., issued Friday. That’s up from 392,000 locations in September 2015, just before the major card networks began enforcing a mandate for chip card acceptance. …
Read More »With Unified Token Management, Visa Seeks To Enable Omnichannel Commerce for Merchants of All Sizes
Visa Inc. launched Token Management Service, a service it says will make it easier for users to manage tokenized payment card data from multiple sources and across multiple channels, the card network announced Thursday. Designed to complement the Visa Token Service, the new program provides a way for merchants to use …
Read More »Eye on Security: 124 Breaches Already Reported in 2018; Cost of Malicious Cyber Activity May Exceed $100 Billion
Some 124 new data breaches have become known this year as of Feb. 16, the Identity Theft Resource Center reports. And the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors issued a study last week pegging the cost of malicious cyber activity to the economy in 2016 at $57 billion on the …
Read More »Google Formally Unveils Its Work-in-Progress Google Pay, the Successor to Android Pay
After announcing a coming rebranding for its Android Pay mobile and online payment service in January, Alphabet Inc.’s Google subsidiary on Tuesday formally unveiled the new Google Pay. But the rebranding, centered on a new mobile app for Android devices, is a work in progress, with more changes and new …
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