News

December, 2014

• 17 December

  Digital River Re-Ups With Microsoft, Removing a Cloud Over Its Planned Buy-Out

  Investors in Digital River Inc.’s stock reacted with exultation Wednesday morning when the gateway and e-commerce services provider disclosed that Microsoft Corp., its biggest customer, had renewed an agreement under which Digital River hosts the Microsoft Store online site. Not only has Digital River retained a client that accounts for …
• 17 December

  NCR Silver Adds LevelUp as a Payment And Marketing Option

  NCR Corp. has added mobile payment and marketing provider LevelUp as an option for merchants using NCR Silver, NCR’s tablet-based point-of-sale system, NCR announced this week. Duluth, Ga.-based NCR says consumers can pay with LevelUp once merchants activate it as a payment option in NCR Silver. NCR Silver is a …
• 17 December

  Mobile Bill Pay Surges Ahead With ‘Hockey-Stick’ Growth, According to Survey

  While the payments industry waits for Apple Pay and other promising applications to help mobile catch on in in-store payments, it’s already blazing ahead in online bill pay. Some 27 million U.S. households are paying at least one bill each month on a mobile phone, according to research from banking-technology …
• 16 December

  VeriFone and First Data Team Up on Integrated POS System Security Effort

    Merchants using integrated point-of-sale systems and that process payments with First Data Corp. have a new data-security option if they use POS terminals made by VeriFone Systems Inc., which goes by Verifone. Atlanta-based First Data is now selling Verifone’s Secure Commerce Architecture service, which eliminates the flow of consumer payment …
• 15 December

  Digital Card Device WocketWallet Shipping by the End of the Year

    Consumers looking for a way to transform their credit, debit, and loyalty cards into electronic versions soon will have a new option with the impending shipment of the WocketWallet. Developed by Shelton, Conn.-based Nxt-ID Inc., Wocket enables consumers to scan information from their payment cards, and other commerce cards, …
• 15 December

  EMV Continues Lifting VeriFone as the Terminal Maker Preps for the ‘Year of Product’

  Point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc. saw a nearly 20% increase in its fourth-quarter North American revenues as U.S. merchants continued to prepare for Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card acceptance. Looking forward, the company is getting ready to introduce major new products in fiscal 2015, a year chief executive Paul Galant …
• 12 December

  While Bitcoin Spending Fell Short, Overstock’s Byrne Remains Bullish for the Future

  When it comes to Bitcoin, no major merchant has more experience with the digital currency than e-commerce giant Overstock.com, which has been accepting it since Jan. 9. Now, with nearly a year of experience under its belt, the retailer will close out 2014 with about $3 million in Bitcoin sales, …
• 12 December

  House Report Criticizes the FDIC’s Alleged Attempts To Shut Out Disfavored Merchants

  A U.S. House of Representatives committee released a report this week blasting the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for its role in Operation Choke Point, a federal-government effort to deny payment-processing services to merchants intent on defrauding consumers. The report is one more nail in what appears to be a coffin …
• 12 December

  Criminals Only Half the Problem When It Comes to Passwords: Report

    Consumer behavior poses just as much of a threat to the proper use of passwords as do the actions of criminals intent on cracking those passwords. That’s the assessment of a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based consulting firm. The “In Search Of A Better …
• 11 December

  Apple Users Seem ‘More Engaged’ Than Android Users As Banks Find Not All Mobile Is Equal

  By John Stewart While payments executives are abuzz about how mobile devices are transforming the business, they are slowly coming to realize that not all mobile users—and certainly not all mobile devices—are equal when it comes to such metrics as the average value of payments and rate of usage. The …