News

February, 2016

• 12 February

  Visa’s Stake in Square Is a Whole Lot Lower Than a Widely-Reported 10%

  It was all over the financial press Friday morning that Visa Inc. owned nearly 10% of merchant processor Square Inc. But it turns out that Visa’s real stake is a tad lower—try less than 2%. The news stories, which started with a Reuters report out of India, were based on …
• 11 February

  Payments Execs Already Foresee the Store Checkout Yielding to ‘Uberesque Approach’

  While mobile wallets, near-field communication, and EMV have focused all eyes in the payments industry on the physical point of sale, some mobile-payments executives are starting to prepare for what they see as the fading away of the traditional checkout counter. Technology already exists that allows customers to order ahead …
• 11 February

  Fiserv’s Popmoney Will Let P2P Recipients Claim Their Cash At Accel ATMs

  Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis.-based bank core processor, says its Popmoney peer-to-peer money-transfer service will get a tweak later this year to enable recipients to go directly to an ATM to retrieve funds. Currently, funds sent via Popmoney must be deposited into an eligible account. The new service, dubbed Popmoney …
• 11 February

  ETA Releases Updated Underwriting Guidelines for Acquirers and ISOs

  As promised, the Electronic Transactions Association has updated its 2014 guidelines for merchant acquirers and independent sales organizations on merchant underwriting and monitoring. And more updates are likely as technology and regulators keep the pressure on merchant processors to stay ahead of risks to the payment system. “We really want …
• 10 February

  Consumer Appeal of Peer-to-Peer Payments Widens As P2P Services See Volume Climb

  With PayPal Holdings Inc. promoting its fast-growing Venmo peer-to-peer payments service and rumors that Apple Inc. is eyeing the business, P2P transfers are starting to take center stage in the consumer-payments business. And now a new survey indicates the service is growing in appeal to consumers for a variety of …
• 10 February

  Despite Some Fourth-Quarter Improvements, Wall Street Punishes First Data

  Leading payment processor First Data Corp. late Tuesday reported modest revenue and transaction growth in 2015’s fourth quarter, as well as better pre-tax profitability and an improved balance sheet in the wake of its October initial public offering, but investors still didn’t like what they saw. The Atlanta-based company’s stock …
• 9 February

  A New Visa Tool Enables Transaction Limits for Credit, Debit, And Prepaid Cards

  Visa Inc. has launched Visa Consumer Transaction Controls, a service that lets Visa-card issuing institutions offer cardholders the ability to set transaction limits with their credit, debit, and prepaid cards. Visa says it works with more than 14,000 financial institutions, but does not provide a U.S.-specific total. Announced Tuesday, the …
• 9 February

  The PCI Council Sets Security Rules for Token Service Providers as their Role Grows

  With the coming of mobile payments and their attendant security issues expanding demand for so-called token service providers, the PCI Security Standards Council has issued rules intended to keep the tokenization environment safe. The Wakefield, Mass.-based PCI Council in December quietly released a 92-page document titled, “Additional Security Requirements and …
• 8 February

  A Tipping Point May Be Nearing for NFC Terminals, But Some Big Retailers Aren’t Sold

  How many point-of-sale terminals have to be enabled for near-field communication (NFC) before the technology becomes a must-have experience for consumers in stores? In the U.S., at least, the answer is 35% of the installed base, according to Osama Bedier, president of Poynt Co., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup that …
• 8 February

  Universal Card Coin Faces a Lawsuit Over Alleged Misrepresentations

  The prospect of ubiquitous merchant acceptance and the ability to carry just one card in lieu of several was too much of a promise, alleges a lawsuit filed last week against Coin Inc., a startup offering a universal card service. Filed on behalf of two consumers who each purchased a …