News

October, 2014

• 27 October

  Issuers’ Apple Pay Pact Assigns Remarkable Authority to Card Networks As Well As Apple

  Issuers signing up to have their cards included in the Apple Pay wallet may benefit from all the hype Apple Inc. is generating for the new mobile-payment service. But behind the scenes, the 500 or so financial institutions that have enlisted in the program so far are also signing up …
• 24 October

  Apple Embeds NFC in Its New iPad Air 2, Stirring Speculation About Its Mobile POS Plans

  When Apple Inc. officially launched its Apple Pay mobile-payments service on Monday, all eyes were on the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the smart phones that carry the near-field communication (NFC) technology that makes Apple Pay work in stores. But now it turns out Apple has also embedded an …
• 23 October

  Pressure Builds for Faster Payments As The Clearing House Plans for Real-Time Settlement

  The effort to bring faster payment settlement to the United States gained momentum this week with an announcement by The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC that it plans to build what it calls a “real-time payment system.” The New York City-based organization, which is owned by the largest financial institutions …
• 23 October

  Would-Be Apple Pay Users Disappointed When Rite Aid Apparently Turns Off NFC

  By Jim Daly As a complex new technology-based service, Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay was certain to hit some speed bumps after it debuted Oct. 20. Sure enough, reports of glitches surfaced, such as about 1,000 double charges on Apple Pay transactions funded by Bank of America Corp. debit cards. But …
• 22 October

  Eye on E-Commerce: Jumio Debuts M-Commerce Service; Flint Offers Online Payment Service

    Two payment-services companies have separately introduced services designed to make it easier for merchants and consumers to engage in e-commerce and mobile commerce. Payments-and-authentication-services provider Jumio Inc.’s newest service aims to make it easier for consumers to shop using smart phones and tablets. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Jumio says its …
• 20 October

  Apple Pay Works, But It Can’t Speed up Lines of Non-Users

    The big news about my test today of Apple Pay, the contactless payment scheme for use with Apple Inc. smart phones and tablets, is that there was no big news. It worked. Each transaction on the first day of availability went through quickly, with a notification popping up on …
• 20 October

  With New Perkwave App, Harbortouch Leverages Apple Pay for a Pay-at-Table Solution

  With Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payments platform launching Monday, many in the payments business are focused on the contactless technology’s potential to change in-store payments behavior. But Apple Pay works within apps, as well, opening up an even wider variety of markets for Apple, including sit-down restaurants. Harbortouch, an Allentown, …
• 20 October

  AmEx Program Aims To Kick-Start EMV Card Acceptance Among Small Businesses

  By Jim Daly Among the many companies President Obama mentioned Friday as he announced that the federal government would be supporting Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip-and-PIN card payments in a big way beginning next year was American Express Co. The president disclosed that AmEx was about to launch a $10 million program …
• 17 October

  Obama Uses His Bully Pulpit To Push Cybersecurity—and Endorse PIN-Based EMV

  By Jim Daly President Barack Obama on Friday signed an executive order committing the federal government to offer and accept Europay-MasterCard-Visa- (EMV) chip cards. A retailer trade group quickly praised Obama for endorsing the chip-and-PIN variety of EMV when others in the payment card industry would make do with chip-and-signature …
• 16 October

  Cardtronics’ New Skyscraper ATMs Link a Mobile App With Merchant Rewards

  Retail ATM network owner and operator Cardtronics Inc. is testing ATMs as tall as nine feet that offer discounts to consumers when they withdraw cash at stores with Cardtronics machines and then make a purchase using a smart-phone app to access the reward. The ATMs and rewards are part of …