News

August, 2014

• 20 August

  Consumers Shy Away from Target’s Debit Card in the Wake of the Retailer’s Data Breach

  Target Corp. on Wednesday reported second-quarter financials reflecting its lowered expectations, but the discount retailer’s top brass also shed some light on how the massive data breach Target disclosed last December affected consumers’ applications for and usage of its private-label payment cards, particularly its debit card. Target’s results confirm that …
• 19 August

  Eye on Litigation: Mitek-USAA Trial Looms; Retailers Appeal to Supreme Court

  The spat between Mitek Systems Inc. and USAA Federal Savings Bank over remote deposit capture software is set for trial Sept. 8, but the trial won’t include Mitek’s patent-infringement allegations that had been a key part of the case. In other payments-related legal action, four retail trade groups and two …
• 19 August

  Eyeing Transaction Dropouts, PayPal Unveils One Touch for Single-Click Mobile Payments

  In a move that could significantly boost mobile-payments activity, PayPal Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a single-click payment method for merchant apps. Dubbed One Touch, the method allows mobile users to log in once with their user names and passwords, then simply touch or click on a “buy” button for all …
• 18 August

  Square Attempts to Quell Some of Amazon’s Thunder With Post Dispelling ‘Myths’

    In a recent blog post, Square Inc. is attempting to counter some of the attention foisted on Amazon.com Inc. after the announcement last week of Local Register, the online retailer’s mobile point-of-sale service, by dispelling the “top 10 myths” about Square’s service. Local Register enables retailers to accept payment …
• 15 August

  COMMENTARY: Amazon, Square, Groupon, and the Death of mPOS

  This week, Amazon launched Amazon Local Register, the mobile POS (mPOS) solution that may well kill mPOS solutions. That’s not to say that they won’t exist anymore, but it is to say that mPOS as a value proposition in and of itself is really going to struggle moving forward. Square, …
• 14 August

  As Card-Industry Use of Tokens Increases, MasterCard Plans “Digital Enablement” Fees

  MasterCard Inc. is planning new “digital enablement” fees, one for merchant acquirers and the other for card issuers, that will generate revenue for the network as mobile payments and the use of tokens that substitute for actual payment card numbers increase. The fees are outlined in recent MasterCard bulletins for …
• 14 August

  Change Is Coming for Agents as Merchants’ Payment Products Evolve

    Sales agents as a way to sell payment-processing services to merchants aren’t going away, but they aren’t staying the same. That’s according to a new research report from Double Diamond Group LLC, a Centennial, Colo.-based payments-advisory firm. “This is a period of significant change in acquiring,” says Rick Oglesby, …
• 13 August

  Dubbed Local Register, Amazon’s Mobile POS Service Arrives

    Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. is moving into brick-and-mortar stores with the debut Wednesday of its Local Register mobile point-of-sale service. Similar to other mobile POS services, such as Square Inc.’s, Local Register requires merchants to create an account, purchase a card reader and download an app to a …
• 12 August

  FinCen Director Defends Marijuana Guidelines as Bank Group Urges Congress To Act

  Defending the federal government’s guidance for providing financial services to legal marijuana businesses, a senior U.S. Treasury Department official on Tuesday said more than 100 banks and credit unions are now working with cannabis-industry customers. One consultant who connects banks with marijuana merchants confirms that financial-institution interest in the budding …
• 12 August

  FleetCor Buying Comdata; Gift Card Business May Be On the Block

    FleetCor Technologies Inc. is buying payment processor Comdata Inc. for $3.45 billion, Norcross, Ga.-based FleetCor announced Tuesday. The deal gets FleetCor access to four businesses it is not already in, including over-the-road fleet payment services, fuel cards for national accounts, virtual payments and gift cards via Comdata’s Stored Value …