News

August, 2014

• 26 August

  Citi Scores a Digital-Wallet First for U.S. Banks, But Will Consumers Care?

  Citigroup Inc. claims to have become the first global bank to introduce its own branded wallet in the U.S. The question now is how much Citi’s millions of payment card holders will care as digital-wallet services proliferate. The new Citi Wallet announced Monday is based on MasterCard Inc.’s MasterPass platform, …
• 26 August

  Effective in 2015, Two New ACH Rules Will Change Returns Threshold, Impose New Fees

  The regulatory body for the automated clearing house network on Tuesday unveiled two new network rules that, among other changes, will lower a key threshold for unauthorized returns, impose new fees on originating banks for unauthorized debits, and hand new enforcement authority to the ACH regulator, Herndon, Va.-based NACHA. The …
• 25 August

  Don’t Expect Apple To Radically Remake Electronic Payments, Researcher Says

  Apple Inc. is expected to release its iPhone 6 next month and, not surprisingly, speculation about the coming smart phone’s features is intense. But a new report from IDC Financial Insights cautions that Apple is not out to reshape the mobile-payments industry. Many of the rumors in payments circles center …
• 25 August

  Visa’s Test Results: Record Peak Volume And Expected Smooth Sailing for Tokens

  Visa Inc. can now process a peak volume of 56,000 messages per second—a record high—and foresees no glitches resulting from a new card-number masking technology expected to go into production some time this fall. Visa arrived at these results upon completing an annual stress test earlier this month in anticipation …
• 21 August

  Mobile, POS Payments-Tech M&A Drives Overall Tech Deals to New Global Highs

  Deals for financial and payments technology companies drove worldwide merger-and-acquisition activity in the technology sector to new highs in the second quarter, according to a report released on Thursday. n Transactions for payments and financial technologies firms was especially heavy in the second quarter. The quarter’s 60 deals exceeded the …
• 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, …