Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Up against determined competition from big technology companies, financial institutions have always reassured themselves that they still have an edge in payments when it comes to consumer trust. Now, that edge appears to be eroding fast. On the question of consumer trust, banks and financial institutions are losing ground to …
Read More »Younger Consumers Inclined To Choose Debit, Especially for the Rewards
Debit-rewards programs offered by banks appear to be rebounding a little, with younger consumers more motivated than other age groups to use them. That’s according to a new report from payments-research firm Mercator Advisory Group Inc. Debit rewards programs fell out of favor with banks following passage of the Durbin …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Banks Are Responsible for Weak Authentication in Apple Pay Fraud
Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payment system has taken some hits over rumors of rampant fraud. According to some reports, Apple Pay fraud is 60% higher than mag-stripe credit card fraud. And now, with the announcement two weeks ago of the Apple Watch and its support of Apple Pay, there is …
Read More »Analyst: Target Settlement Signals a Change in How the Courts View Data Breaches
By Jim Daly Target Corp.’s $10 million settlement of a consumer class action stemming from its late-2013 data breach is significant not only because of its size, but also because it signals that courts are becoming more attentive to the harm consumers suffer from data breaches even if the payment …
Read More »With Fraud Hitting Apple Pay in Its ‘Soft Underbelly,’ Experts Work on a Fix
Ever since its launch, proponents of Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payments service have touted the wallet’s high-tech security features, including tokenization of card credentials, a secure element in the phone locking down those credentials, and fingerprint authentication. But now, only four months after that much-heralded launch, banks that support Apple …
Read More »For $95 a Year, Stratos Promises Ease of Use as a Consolidated Card Service
Consumers wielding multiple credit and debit cards in their wallets have yet another service to use to consolidate them into one electronic payment card. Stratos Inc. on Tuesday introduced its Stratos Bluetooth Connected Card that enables consumers to load multiple cards onto the electronic device. The card begins shipping …
Read More »Costco’s Post-AmEx Credit Card Plans Include Visa but Exclude MasterCard
By Jim Daly The big warehouse retailer Costco Wholesale Corp. announced Monday an agreement with Citigroup Inc. to replace its current cobranded card from American Express Co. next April with a Citi-issued Visa credit card. But Costco also announced a companion agreement with Visa Inc. under which other Visa-branded credit …
Read More »Mass EMV Chip Card Issuance Awaits: Survey
The deluge of EMV chip cards for the majority of U.S. consumers has yet to happen, finds a survey by ORC International Inc. In the survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults, only 26% said they had a chip card. That figure increases slightly among consumers with credit cards, …
Read More »AmEx Could Take an $82 Billion Charge-Volume Hit With Loss of U.S. Costco Card
American Express Co. on Thursday disclosed that it will not renew its merchant-acceptance and cobranded credit card agreements with Costco Wholesale Corp. The card accounted for about $82 billion of AmEx’s worldwide charge volume last year. The possible loss of the warehouse club’s 16-year AmEx card program had been rumored …
Read More »Consumer Readiness for EMV Is Rising in Wake of Breaches And As Deadline Nears
With the payments industry working against an implementation deadline that’s less than eight months away, networks and issuers are looking more closely at just how ready cardholders are for Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip cards. The latest research from MasterCard Inc. indicates some 60% of consumers are now at least aware of …
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