News

May, 2015

• 21 May

  Virtual-Currency Observers Assess the Legacy of New York’s Departing Financial Boss

  Payments executives today are trying to assess the legacy of Benjamin Lawsky, New York State’s controversial top financial regulator who proposed the first regulations on virtual currencies. Lawsky, who became superintendent of the state’s Department of Financial Services in 2011, announced Wednesday that he plans to step down in June …
• 21 May

  PayPal Opens One Touch Checkout to Any User, With Or Without the PayPal App

  With the rapid spread of commerce on mobile devices, a key problem for merchants is getting customers to follow through with checkouts on tiny screens. PayPal Inc.’s answer to the problem is a solution that lets consumers check out with a single touch or click, and on Thursday it made …
• 20 May

  A Cut in a Controversial ACH Fee Pleases Big-Box Retailer Group, But a Bank Shrugs

  The reduced interbank fee of 5.2 cents contained in the same-day settlement plan approved this week by members of NACHA, the regulatory body for the automated clearing house network, is likely to go down better with major merchants than the 8.2-cent fee contained in the original proposal. “The level of …
• 19 May

  With MasterCard Send, MasterCard Promises P2P Payments ‘Within Seconds’

  MasterCard Inc. on Tuesday launched a person-to-person payment service in the United States that will allow debit card holders to send money to any other individual with a debit card account, regardless of the card brand and with the money arriving nearly instantaneously. The new service, dubbed MasterCard Send, also …
• 19 May

  With a Lower Interbank Fee, NACHA’s Same-Day Settlement Plan Wins Approval

  The voting members of automated clearing house network regulator NACHA have approved a plan to allow for same-day settlement of ACH transactions, NACHA announced Tuesday. The same-day proposal, which has been debated since its introduction early last year, received “overwhelming support” in the balloting, says a NACHA spokesperson. NACHA does …
• 19 May

  EMV Could Spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E for Card-Not-Present Merchants

    Lost and stolen credit and debit cards equipped with EMV chips may become the bane of e-commerce merchants. As the U.S. payment-card industry begins its gargantuan migration to smart cards, counterfeit fraud at the point of sale should decrease. But fraud in other places very likely will increase. That’s …
• 18 May

  New Devices, New Terminals, New Programs Will Drive In-Store M-Payments, Report Says

  By John Stewart Left for dead as recently as two years ago, the concept of mobile payments in physical stores is staging a remarkable resurrection. The signs are everywhere. In April, PayPal Inc. said it will adopt near-field communication (NFC) after years of mocking the technology, which enables wave-and-pay transactions …
• 18 May

  Restaurants Most Likely To Adopt Mobile Payments, Consumers Say in a Survey

  Consumers expect restaurants to be the top merchant type to adopt mobile payments, especially as they envision it simplifying the payment process. That’s the finding of a survey from independent sales organization Harbortouch Payments LLC, which also products point-of-sale products for restaurants and other merchants. In the survey of 1,000 …
• 18 May

  E-Commerce Sales Hit 7% of Retail Volume for the First Time

  Electronic commerce hit a milestone in the first quarter by accounting for 7% of total retail sales for the first time, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Census Bureau reported Friday. Preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau pegged seasonally adjusted retail sales at $1.15 trillion, with e-commerce totaling $80.3 billion. In 2014’s …
• 15 May

  EMV for Small Merchants Is a Hard Sell, But It’s Easier With The Right Approach

  Selling payments services to small merchants is never easy. Now, throw in EMV and its attendant complications, add in merchant ignorance of the technology, and the sales pitch gets more complex. With the impending liability shift set for Oct. 1, independent sales organizations, acquirers, processors, and banks are scrambling to …