News

September, 2015

• 1 September

  Android Pay Is Very Close to Launch, a Google Executive Declares

  By John Stewart Ever since Google Inc. announced its Android Pay mobile-payments service a little more than three months ago, the online search giant has been mum about when the service will be launched. But a Google executive on Tuesday hinted in a public forum that the launch is likely …

August, 2015

• 31 August

  Growing Mobile Use Among Consumers Is Attracting More Criminals, Says New Report

  Growing consumer use of mobile devices like smart phones is making the devices more attractive to criminals trying to capture payments data. That’s the assessment from ThreatMetrix Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based data-security company, in its “Cybercrime Report: Q2 2015” report, which analyzed more than 75 million attacks that were …
• 31 August

  Eye on Regulation: Updated List Shows Heavy Activity in the U.S., EU and Malaysia

  A new update of a list detailing where public authorities have intervened in payment card merchant pricing and rules shows only one country, Malaysia, was added over the past year, but authorities took new regulatory measures in places on the predecessor list, particularly the European Union and the United States. …
• 31 August

  Separate But Tied Together: Why eBay Is Dropping Non-PayPal Payment Methods

  By John Stewart PayPal Holdings Inc. and eBay Inc. went their separate ways just 45 days ago, but already the fallout from that split is beginning to make itself felt. EBay is telling sellers on its main online marketplaces that starting Sept. 27 it will stop supporting three electronic payment …
• 27 August

  PayPal To Eliminate Tiered Pricing for Its Smallest U.S. Merchants

  PayPal Holdings Inc. will eliminate volume-based price tiers and charge all of its small U.S. merchants 2.9% of the sale plus 30 cents per domestic transaction come Oct. 1, according to a notice the leading online-payments firm began sending to merchants Thursday. The 2.9%-plus-30-cents tier is the highest rate under …
• 27 August

  Lost Sales From Unfounded Rejections Dwarfs Actual Fraud Losses, Report Says

  While a seemingly unending rash of data breaches has payments players scrambling to adopt a panoply of fraud-fighting technologies, little attention has been focused on the consequences for issuers and merchants when cardholders are wrongly turned down at the point of sale because of fraud suspicions. It’s a big problem—bigger …
• 26 August

  Blackhawk Study on E-Gift Cards Shows Why Competition Is Heating up

  Electronic gift cards are becoming more popular with consumers, and potentially creating more sales at retailers, finds a new survey from Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. That will likely mean competition for consumers will heat up as merchants and processors look to cash in. Mercator Advisory Group, which follows the gift …
• 26 August

  Eye on Wall Street: First Data Names IPO Underwriters; Worldpay in Play?

  Payment processor First Data Corp. on Tuesday named a big cast of underwriters for its planned initial public offering of stock. Meanwhile, a German processor reportedly is joining private-equity firms in making a play for United Kingdom-based Worldpay Ltd., which is one of the world’s largest merchant acquirers and has …
• 26 August

  COMMENTARY: Get Ready for EMV’s Longer—And Different—Transactions

  With all the attention being given to the upcoming EMV liability-shift deadline on Oct. 1 in the United States, one important issue is getting overlooked. That’s the effect new chip cards and EMV software and equipment will have on the customer experience. According to a recent report on EMV from …
• 26 August

  How Buy Buttons And Single-Click Tech Are Driving Commerce on Smart Phones

  By John Stewart Larger screens, buy buttons, and streamlined checkouts are expected to combine to raise the profile of smart phones in e-commerce. And now there are numbers to show just how much retail sales volume the devices will generate. Smart phones will account for $27.7 billion in retail mobile …