News

July, 2015

• 27 July

  How a Confidential IPO Could Help Square Frame Its Long-Term Strategy

  Square Inc.’s future may include public ownership if reports late last week that it filed for a confidential initial public offering are correct. Both BloombergBusiness and The Wall Street Journal reported the filing, permitted under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which enables companies with less than $1 billion …
• 24 July

  Just $50 in Fraud Would Motivate 32% of Small Businesses To Adopt EMV

  What will it take to get small businesses to accept EMV payment cards? Apparently $50 in fraud charges will motivate 32% of them to install EMV-capable point-of-sale terminals. That’s the finding from a survey released Thursday by Cayan, a Boston-based payments company. While 32% said $50 when asked what amount …
• 24 July

  Five Years Later, What’s the Bottom Line on Durbin? Well, It’s Complicated

  By John Stewart Five years after it became the law of the land, the Durbin Amendment remains as controversial as it was then, with virtually no agreement in sight on such questions as whether merchants have cut prices in response to interchange savings or whether consumers have paid more for …
• 24 July

  Judge Grants Restraining Order to Backpage.Com in Credit Card Dispute With Sheriff

  A federal judge on Friday granted a temporary restraining order in favor of online classified-advertising portal Backpage.com, which challenged Cook County, Ill., Sheriff Thomas Dart after Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. granted Dart’s request to ban card payments on Backpage because the site allegedly facilitates the sex trade. A spokesperson …
• 23 July

  Eye On Earnings: AmEx’s Earnings Slip But OptBlue Grows; Discover’s Pulse Volume Dips

  By Jim Daly and Kevin Woodward American Express Co. saw total revenues and profits decline by 4% in the second quarter, but its OptBlue program has added 700,000 small merchants this year. Meanwhile, Discover Financial Services reported late Wednesday that its Pulse volume fell after losing a large issuer. New …
• 23 July

  COMMENTARY: Tokenization, Misinformation, and the Benefits of Host Card Emulation

  Tokenization is not a new concept. Yet, while the process has improved card security across a variety of industries, there still exists myriad misinformation about why it’s important and how to best implement it. I’m going to argue that an approach called host card emulation (HCE) is the safest and …
• 23 July

  Visa Posts 25% Profit Increase as U.S. Credit and Debit Volumes Climb

  A tepid world economy didn’t stop Visa Inc. from posting an 8% increase in global transaction volume and a 25% jump in net income for the quarter ended June 30. The leading payment card network on Thursday reported operating revenues of $3.52 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2015, …
• 22 July

  InComm and Gemalto Prepare for Mobile Prepaid NFC Payments

  Prepaid provider InComm Holdings Inc. and smart card maker Gemalto NV have devised a new service that enables mobile-wallet providers and merchants to offer and accept prepaid cards loaded onto near-field communication (NFC)-equipped smart phones. The InComm Mobile Platform uses Gemalto’s technology—namely its Trusted Service Hub for the interconnectivity, data …
• 21 July

  Only a Minority of Consumers Would Buy Wearable Technology: Survey

    Only 42% of consumers would consider or have already bought wearable technology. That’s one result from a Bank of America Corp. survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults. Wearables garner much attention because of their mobile-payments capabilities. These devices—mostly watches—enable consumers to make mobile payments without using a smart …
• 21 July

  Backpage.com Sues Cook County Sheriff in Payment Card Acceptance Dispute

  The owner of online classified-advertising portal Backpage.com is suing the sheriff of Cook County, Ill., in federal court for pressuring payment card networks to ban card purchases in Backpage’s adult section. The lawsuit filed Tuesday by Backpage.Com LLC in U.S. District Court in Chicago alleges Sheriff Thomas J. Dart engaged …