News

January, 2014

• 27 January

  Apple Now Holds Key Building Blocks to Exploit ‘Big Opportunity’ in Mobile Payments

  Having been for years at the center of speculation on the matter, Apple Inc. may finally be readying a foray into mobile payments, according to news reports over the weekend. Citing knowledgeable sources, The Wall Street Journal Friday night said online-services chief Eddy Cue is heading up the effort at …
• 26 January

  Michaels Reports ‘Potential Issue’ Involving Apparent Payment Card Data Breach

  Seemingly confirming predictions from law enforcement and data-security executives in private industry that more data breaches beyond the recent ones at Target Corp. and Neiman Marcus Group are coming, arts-and-crafts retailer Michaels Stores on Saturday warned that “we may have experienced a data-security attack.” Plano, Texas-based Michaels alerted consumers to …
• 24 January

  As WePay Shutters Its Hosted Checkout, A Rival Seeks to Sign up Disappointed Merchants

  At least one competitor of payment-service provider WePay Inc. is working to take advantage of WePay’s decision to cease providing a hosted checkout service for online merchants. 2Checkout.com Inc., Columbus, Ohio, this week began wooing merchants that may want to stay with a hosted checkout service rather than use the …
• 24 January

  Twitter Getting Serious About Payments and Commerce? It Might Be

    Social media network Twitter Inc. may be on the verge of enabling full-fledged commerce, and payments, for the more than 230 million monthly active users of the service, according to a report on Re/code, a technology news site. In it, Re/code says Twitter is nearing a deal with Stripe, …
• 23 January

  Mobile-Payments Specialist Paydiant Patents an App That Stages ATM Cash Withdrawals

  A mobile-banking feature that allows ATM users to stage withdrawals in advance received a patent Tuesday from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The technology, conceived and implemented by Paydiant Inc., a Wellesley, Mass.-based startup, has already been integrated into software at ATM maker Diebold Inc. and at Fidelity National …
• 23 January

  New T-Mobile Prepaid Card Presents Opportunities and Risks for Blackhawk Network

  It’s best known for its Gift Card Mall displays of retailer gift cards and other prepaid cards in grocery stores, but prepaid card services provider Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. is a force in general-purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid cards. It had a GPR business even before 2010, when it launched its …
• 22 January

  Global Gateway Adyen Sees $14 Billion in 2013 Transactions, Up 40% from 2012

  Global payment gateway provider Adyen processed more than $14 billion in global payments in 2013, a 40% increase from $10 billion in 2012, the company recently announced. n Mobile transactions in particular are growing for the Amsterdam-based company, and taking a larger share of overall transactions. Mobile payments accounted for …
• 22 January

  EBay Boss Donahoe Issues a Strong Rebuff to Raider Icahn’s Call for a PayPal Spinoff

  The board of directors of eBay Inc. is “unified” in opposing a proposal from famed activist investor Carl Icahn that the company spin off its PayPal Inc. unit, eBay chief executive John Donahoe told analysts Wednesday afternoon. Calling the proposed separation a “distraction” coming just as eBay is trying to …
• 21 January

  Breaches Underscore EMV Routing Divide As ATMIA Critiques MasterCard Stand

  The recently disclosed data breaches at Target Corp. and Neiman Marcus Group have breathed new life into an industry dispute over how to account for network choice in routing EMV debit transactions. The ATM Industry Association on Tuesday issued a statement critical of MasterCard Inc. for earlier this month declaring …
• 21 January

  Target’s Data Breach Lifts 2013’s Tally of Compromised Payment Cards Way Past 2012’s Total

  The number of credit and debit cards compromised in 2013’s data breaches was on track by mid-December to be more than double the number of cards compromised in 2012, but then along came Target Corp.’s massive breach that exposed 40 million more. Thus, the Identity Theft Resource Center now estimates …