News

October, 2017

• 10 October

  Merchants Celebrate the Durbin Amendment’s Sixth Birthday as Payments Group Sneers

  

  The Durbin Amendment’s debit card interchange price cap took effect six years ago this month, prompting a merchant group to celebrate the occasion and claim the measure has saved consumers and merchants $48 billion. But a lobbying group of payment networks and banks derided those savings estimates and once again …
• 10 October

  Smart Checkout Is Advancing, But Getting Rid of the Checkout Will Take a While

  

  Ever since ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft came along, processors and merchants have been captivated by the idea of running transactions entirely in the background, without any checkout. That concept will emerge over time, but in different forms and not necessarily with checkout-less experiences, according to research released Tuesday. …
• 9 October

  Eye on Blackhawk: Consumers Take Deals to Heart and a Director Leaves the Board

  

  In the unending quest for a deal, price isn’t the only consideration for consumers, but it’s an important one, finds research from Hawk Incentives, a business owned by prepaid specialist Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. In the “The Recession May Be Over, But Deal Seeking Isn’t” report based on a survey …
• 9 October

  FDIC May Have Been Hit With Up to 54 Data Breaches in the Past Two Years, Auditor Says

  

  As the insurer for deposits at most of the nation’s banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. collects a large amount of personally identifying information on bank customers. As such, the FDIC is a target for hackers, who hit it with 54 suspected or confirmed data breaches discovered between Jan. 1, …
• 9 October

  Radial Purchased by bpost and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 10/9/17

  

  Elan Financial Services, a processing unit of U.S. Bank, announced it has worked with Ondot Systems to allow two-way communications on the My Mobile Money app. The app now allows issuers to communicate directly with cardholders to confirm debit card transactions. Belgian postal operator bpost has acquired Radial, a U.S. e-commerce …
• 9 October

  A Canadian Startup Mates Contactless With Cryptocurrency in a Fledgling Wallet

  

  With Bitcoin trading at $4,300 and Ethereum at $300, most of the attention in the payments world has been on the cryptocurrencies’ value as an investment rather than as a payment method. Now, a year-old Toronto-based startup hopes to change that by enabling contactless point-of-sale transactions using Ether, the Ethereum …
• 6 October

  Digital Wallets Are Not Yet Ready for Prime Time, But Are Getting Closer, a Report Says

  

  Though digital-wallet adoption among consumers may have paused this year, merchants continue to prep for the electronic payment, according to “The Next Phase of Digital Wallet Adoption,” a report commissioned by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Conducted by Forrester Consulting, a unit of Forrester Research Inc., the report found the fraction …
• 6 October

  Tech Buzzwords Don’t Cut It as Skeptical Investors Assess Payment Startups

  

  Moderating a panel of three investment executives who put money into startup payments firms and other financial-technology companies, Frank Young, senior vice president of innovation at merchant processor Global Payments Inc., noticed well into the Strategic Leadership Forum session Thursday that no one had mentioned artificial intelligence, machine learning, the …
• 6 October

  Sheetz Moves Ahead on EMV Upgrades and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 10/6/17

  

  Convenience-store chain Sheetz Inc. announced it is upgrading the forecourts of its more than 500 locations with EMV acceptance at the pump. The new equipment from Gilbarco Veeder-Root was jointly developed with VeriFone Systems Inc. In addition to EMV acceptance, the technology supports mobile wallets, encryption, barcode scanning, and contactless …
• 5 October

  What Might It Take for the EMV Holdouts To Join the Chip-Card Fold?

  

  The number of U.S. merchants that accept EMV chip cards at the point of sale is increasing rapidly, according to recent figures from Visa Inc.,  but it’s going to take some work by merchant acquirers and payment card networks to convince the holdouts to convert. Executives from two of those …