News

December, 2013

• 9 December

  Square Tries To Reinforce Its Hip Image With a Fourth-Generation Card Reader

  Square Inc. on Monday introduced the fourth generation of its now-famous payment card reader for mobile devices. The company has added new technology and made the device 45% thinner than its 22-month-old predecessor, two factors that may reinforce Square’s message that it is the cool merchant processor, different from all …
• 5 December

  AmEx’s Third-Party Issuance Program Picks Up Speed With U.S. Bank And Wells on Board

  The recent announcement that U.S. Bancorp would issue American Express-branded credit cards brings yet another big domestic bank into American Express Co.’s network of third-party issuers under a strategy AmEx uses to build transaction volume. AmEx had 77 so-called Network Card License (NCL) arrangements with banks worldwide at the end …
• 5 December

  Look Ma, No Card Reader: New App Captures Card Numbers for POS Transactions

  A new point-of-sale card-acceptance app expected to be available in early 2014 will use pattern-recognition technology to capture a payment card number, potentially speeding up an in-store transaction and eliminating the need for a card reader. n Cartwheel Register eschews a card reader that plugs into the audio jack in …
• 5 December

  SimplyTapp, the Power Behind Google’s NFC Workaround, Aims at Mobile Banking

  Ever since Google Inc. stunned the payments business early last month with its mobile operating system update that skirts the secure element for near-field communication, all eyes have been on a tiny startup in Austin, Texas, called SimplyTapp Inc. The 2-year-old company, with six full-time employees, has kept busy answering questions …
• 5 December

  Pay And Walk-Away App Debuts To Let Physical Merchants Combat Showrooming

  A new smart-phone app hopes to give retailers an edge in capturing sales when consumers use their mobile devices in their stores. Dubbed SelfPay, the app enables consumers to pay for merchandise while standing in a store aisle and leave without stopping at a cash register. Developed by Digital Retail …
• 5 December

  Mobile Makes Cyber Monday Gains Among U.S. Holiday Shoppers

  Consumers used smart phones or tablets to spend $962 million on holiday purchases across three key shopping days in the past week, further cementing the importance of these devices to retailers. n Adobe says 18.3% of online sales came from mobile devices on Cyber Monday, an 80% increase from last …
• 4 December

  Rising with Holiday Shopping, Chargebacks Are on the Naughty List for Most Merchants

  Chargebacks may not be lumps of coal, but many merchants may consider them as such this holiday season. n Chargebacks are the process by which cardholders contest charges they didn’t make or don’t recognize when they receive their statement. A chargeback filing typically requires a merchant to dig up supporting …
• 3 December

  Digital Gift Cards Come Into Their Own As Holiday Promotions Spur Sales, ‘Self-Giving’

  Only a few years old, digital gift cards are soaring in popularity as U.S. consumers head into the heart of the holiday shopping season. Total loads on the products will reach $1.3 billion for November and December, a nearly four-fold increase from the same two-month stretch last year, according to …
• 3 December

  Co-Op Financial Services Brings in FIS And Enhances Its Sprig Mobile Wallet

  Co-Op Financial Services, a vendor and network provider to 3,500 credit unions serving 30 million debit card holders, is upgrading its Sprig mobile wallet with technology and services from the big processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) and its PayNet payment network. Sprig’s upgrade comes at a time when …

November, 2013

• 26 November

  Interchange Relief And Other Carrots Needed To Spur U.S. EMV Conversion, Analyst Says

  Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip cards will come to the U.S., but probably not before the payment card networks postpone current deadlines and offer strong incentives for merchants that might include interchange relief and dumping the signature as a cardholder- verification method, according to a new research report from Celent LLC. Card …