News

October, 2015

• 14 October

  Blockchain Technology Enables Uphold To Offer Free Money-Exchange Services

    With a mission to offer as many free, or cheap, money-exchange services as possible, Uphold, a virtual funds and commodity platform, on Wednesday launched the first of a four-phase effort to expand its reach among consumers, merchants, charitable organizations and software developers. Uphold, the new name of Bitreserve, an …
• 14 October

  Square Files for IPO; Heading for More Than $32 Billion in Charge Volume

  After alerting the investment community in July that it intended to file for an initial public offering of stock, merchant processor Square Inc. on Wednesday finally went public with its plans. San Francisco-based Square, which first made a name for itself by providing mobile-payment services to tiny businesses and individual …
• 14 October

  Banking Kingpin Chase Prepares an ‘Aggressive’ Push for Its Own Digital Wallet

  Another 800-pound gorilla will soon be promoting a digital wallet, only this time it’s not a technology firm. It’s JPMorgan Chase & Co., a world leader in payment card issuance and merchant acquiring. “We’re launching our own wallet. You’ll be hearing a lot more about it,” Mike Passilla, chief executive …
• 13 October

  VeriFone Snaps Up Curb, a Taxi-Hailing and Payments App

    VeriFone Systems Inc. reported Tuesday that it bought Curb, a taxi-hailing service that offers consumers an electronic hailing app. The move boosts San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone’s involvement in taxis, which started almost 10 years ago, and complements Way2ride, a taxi-payment service VeriFone launched in 2013 to provide. The Curb …
• 13 October

  CurrentC Adding More Major Merchants in Columbus, ‘Open-Loop’ Cards To Come

  Within a week, four more major retailers—ExxonMobil, Sears, Shell Oil, and WalMart—will join the CurrentC pilot that started last month in Columbus, Ohio. That’s according to Brian V. Mooney, a long-time processing executive who took over in April as interim chief executive of the mobile wallet’s sponsor organization, Merchant Customer …
• 12 October

  The Double-Edged Sword of Tokenization Helps Issuers But Also Poses a Subtle Threat

  By John Stewart The rise of tokenization into a major payments business helps enable enterprises like Apple Pay and Android Pay but could also pose a threat to the financial institutions that have historically issued the majority of the cards consumers use most often. That threat lies in the fact …
• 12 October

  The ABA Says the FBI Was ‘Receptive To Getting It Right’ About PINs and EMV Cards

  The American Bankers Association seems to have persuaded the Federal Bureau of Investigation to do something the Bureau rarely ever does, at least in public: change its mind. The FBI’s original position was the consumers should enter a personal identification number whenever possible when using their new EMV chip cards. …
• 11 October

  FBI Notice Warning Consumers To Use PINs With EMV Cards Gone; ABA Protest the Cause?

  A public service announcement the FBI posted Thursday warning consumers that the new EMV chip cards “are vulnerable to exploitation by fraudsters” and urging them to enter a PIN instead of a signature during EMV credit card transactions was removed Friday, apparently at the behest of the leading banker trade …
• 9 October

  With NFC Finally Getting a Foothold, More Uses Could Mean More Payments, Experts Say

  Finding more ways to incorporate near-field communication (NFC) technology into everyday objects could eventually mean more payments. At least that’s the future as envisioned by panelists at the NFC Solutions Summit this week in Phoenix. Sponsored by the Smart Card Alliance, the conference examined ways NFC technology, which enables wireless …
• 8 October

  Universal Offers Standards, Digital IDs Needed To Drive Wider Mobile-Wallet Adoption

    Consumer confusion, lack of standards for offers, and splintered merchant acceptance continue to impede mobile-wallet adoption among consumers, but they are not expected to thwart the long-term prospects for the payments model, suggested panelists on Wednesday at the NFC Solutions Summit in Phoenix. Near-field communication (NFC) technology not only can …