News

May, 2014

• 8 May

  Government Probe of POS Rules Gets New Life as DoJ Case Against AmEx Proceeds

  A U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit alleging anti-competitive behavior by American Express Co. can proceed, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled Wednesday. Seventeen states also are plaintiffs in the case. n The case is important because of the government’s continuing inquiry …
• 8 May

  Chase To Discontinue Its Blink Contactless Card, But It’s Unlikely To Slow EMV Migration

  Citing little enthusiasm by either consumers or merchants for contactless card payments, JPMorgan Chase & Co. has quietly begun informing cardholders that it is discontinuing its blink contactless program. While at first glance blink’s demise seems like a setback for chip-based card payments in the United States, it is unlikely …
• 8 May

  Stockpile Emerges To Offer Digital Gift Cards Backed by Stock to ‘Everyday’ Consumers

  A new type of gift card is set to debut this summer that will be backed not by cash but by shares of stock. The virtual card will come from a startup called Stockpile Inc., which has created a waiting list for interested potential accountholders and is planning to market …
• 6 May

  U.S. Readiness for EMV at a Low Ebb Despite Looming Deadline, Report Warns

  By John Stewart With a crucial deadline looming in 2015, the U.S. payments industry will have only partially converted to the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card standard by the end of that year. Indeed, it will likely take years to equip small merchants especially to accept EMV, according to a report …
• 6 May

  Chicago Test of Mobile Payments for Parking Accelerates Into Massive City Rollout

  The private operator of Chicago’s 36,000 parking meters announced Tuesday that drivers will be able to pay with mobile phones at all of the city’s metered street spaces later this summer. The expansion reportedly makes Chicago the biggest market for mobile parking payments in the country and comes just three …
• 6 May

  TSYS Lines Up Behind ShopKeep’s Tablet-Based POS System

  Tablet-based point-of-sale provider ShopKeep.com Inc. has lined up payment-processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) as a reseller. Columbus, Ga.-based TSYS will offer ShopKeep products in addition to traditional POS terminals, contactless readers, mobile payments, and online payment acceptance. TSYS say it added ShopKeep because it knows merchants have a need …
• 1 May

  CEO Says ‘Singles And Doubles’ Are Helping MasterCard To Win New Business

  Despite the impending loss of consumer payment cards from mega-bank JPMorgan Chase & Co., MasterCard Inc. is winning new business from U.S. card issuers, its top executives said Thursday at the No. 2 payment card network’s first-quarter earnings call. U.S. credit card purchase volume grew 8.1% year-over-year to $138 billion …
• 1 May

  With 2Checkout Enabling International Payments, Shopify Hopes To Keep Its Growth Going

    Shopify Inc. can eliminate learning new languages from its list of objectives. The online-commerce company announced this week it was adding 2Checkout’s payment technology, which processes payments in 26 currencies in 196 countries, to its POS software. The move does not displace the back-end payment-processing compact between Shopify and …

April, 2014

• 30 April

  First Data Reduces Loss Despite Merchant-Acquiring and Debit Card Headwinds

  Leading payment card processor First Data Corp. on Wednesday reported it lost less money in the first quarter than it did a year earlier despite price compression in its merchant-acquiring business and slow debit card transaction growth. Atlanta-based First Data typically posts an operating profit but a net loss after …
• 29 April

  Host Card Emulation Takes Another Step with Key Sequent Software Issuance Solution

  Sequent Software Inc. on Tuesday launched a solution that will let card issuers take advantage of so-called host card emulation, a protocol that allows issuers to provision digital cards for mobile payments while bypassing the phone-based secure element. With the new solution, issuers will also be able to embed their …