Fraud & Security

Hackers gained unauthorized access to credit or debit card data stored with software company CentralSquare Technologies and used for one-time water-bill payments made through the city of Pompano Beach, Fla.’s Web site from Aug. 30 to Dec. 6, 2018, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Nearly 3,800 customers made one-time payments …

NCR Corp. announced it acquired BEC, said to be a leading provider in Colorado of point-of-sale technology for the hospitality industry. BEC, which accounts for 2,600 sites, has been an NCR reseller for 23 years. Terms were not announced. After years of unsuccessful attempts to win government approval to operate …

PayPal Holdings Inc. introduced a so-called rainbow card for users of its Venmo peer-to-peer payments service. The colorful plastic, available for a limited time, is the latest version of a debit card PayPal launched last year to allow users to pay merchants with their Venmo balance. As with the original …

Apple Inc. and the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will begin issuing a joint credit card this spring, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new card will tie into the Apple Wallet. Apple’s brand already is on a credit card issued by Barclaycard. It is unknown what will happen to that …

ATM and payment-services provider Paramount Management Group LLC acquired CAI—The ATM Company, an independent deployer with thousands of ATMs in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and other states. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. A partnership between Transaction Network Services and P97 Networks has processed in-dash fuel payments for …

Two ATM trade groups said Monday they are working together to assure their members get access to banking services in what the associations believe is a risk-averse financial climate. The National ATM Council Inc. and the ATM Industry Association said they signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop a …

On the heels of a robust holiday shopping season come some sobering statistics. The recently released 2018 “True Cost of Fraud” study by LexisNexis Risk Solutions shows a 35% increase in fraud for midsize to large e-retailers over 2017. In the retail sector, the monthly average of fraudulent transactions jumped to 306 from …

Hamburger chain The Wendy’s Co. announced a $50 million settlement of class-action lawsuits filed against it after a data breach that began in 2015. The 7,500 bank and credit-union plaintiffs alleged the breach was caused by malware that affected point-of-sale systems at more than 1,000 franchised Wendy’s locations. Some 18 …

The number of U.S. merchant locations accepting EMV chip cards grew nearly 15% in 2018 while EMV payment transactions rose 27%, according to new data from Visa Inc.  In its latest report on the conversion of U.S. general-purpose payment cards from magnetic stripes to EMV chips, Visa says 3.1 million …

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will within a few months begin testing its own cryptocurrency for wholesale payments between corporations and banks globally, according to CNBC. The new token, called JPM Coin, will be exchangeable at the rate of $1 each. The development may surprise some observers, given the harsh criticism …