News

October, 2013

• 30 October

  PayPal Offers To Waive $50,000 in Fees to Sort out Winners in the Tech Startup World

  In a bid to forge closer ties to the increasingly important business of creating and marketing mobile apps and other software products, PayPal Inc. this week announced it is waiving transaction-processing fees for nascent developers in a new program it calls Startup Blueprint. The offer is limited to $50,000 in …
• 29 October

  First Data’s Acquisitions Perk Up as Processor Hunts for Revenue-Generating Tech Partners

  Leading payment card processor First Data Corp. on Tuesday announced it had bought Perka Inc., a startup that provides smart-phone-based loyalty programs for merchants. The Perka buy comes just a few weeks after First Data unveiled a tablet-based point-of-sale system from Clover Network Inc., another startup that it quietly bought …
• 28 October

  An Open Letter: Let’s Put a Stop to Criminal Practices in Our Industry—Now!

  (An Open Letter to the Electronic Payments Industry) n On October 16, 2013, I delivered a keynote address to the Strategic Leadership Forum of the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) on my views of the evolution of the payments industry.  At the beginning of this address, I told the audience that …
• 28 October

  The ETA Responds to Heartland’s Bob Carr

  In his Oct. 23, 2013, letter to the payments industry (“An Open Letter to the Electronic Payments Industry from Bob Carr”), the chairman and CEO of Heartland Payment Systems provides a compelling historical overview of the challenges faced by our industry some three decades ago. As detailed in his letter, …
• 24 October

  As April Deadline Looms, ATM Experts Fret About Upgrade from Windows XP

  Will the world end for ATM owners on April 8? Not likely, but it could become less secure. That is the day Microsoft Corp. ends all support—including security updates—for Windows XP, a common operating system not only for PCs but also for ATMs. That has the ATM industry pondering a …
• 23 October

  PayPal, InteliSpend Deals Broaden Blackhawk Network’s Gift And Prepaid Card Reach

  Prepaid and gift card provider Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. is further broadening its reach beyond supermarket gift card malls with its deal to offer gift card services within PayPal Inc.’s digital wallet and its pending acquisition of InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions, which offers corporate incentives and consumer promotion products. Announced Wednesday, …
• 23 October

  Split Bread Takes Home the Bacon by Banning Cash And Using QR Codes

  With interchange costs ravaging their balance sheets, most merchants will tell you they’d far rather take cash than cards. Not Split Bread. In fact, the San Francisco sandwich shop doesn’t just discourage cash, it plain won’t accept it. Cards only, please. “Cash is expensive,” David Sliverglide, chief executive of Split …
• 23 October

  Somewhat Warily, Payments Execs Acknowledge That Bitcoin Will Make Its Mark

  By Jim Daly A summer poll of payments executives found that less than a third think Bitcoin and other so-called math-based virtual currencies will greatly change how money is moved within 10 years. But majorities, some strong, also think that Bitcoin will spur responses from PayPal Inc., the big wire-transfer …
• 22 October

  AmEx Cardholders Can Use Points to Pay for Taxi Rides in New York

    American Express Co. cardholders for the first time can use their rewards points at the point of sale when they pay for rides in New York City taxis that use VeriFone Systems Inc. taxi point-of-sale services, AmEx said Monday. Cardholders can use their points in more than 7,000 New …
• 22 October

  Network Divide Over EMV Comes to the Fore as Rumors About a Liability-Shift Delay Surface

  By Jim Daly The deep divide within debit networks about bringing Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip cards to the United States was on full display Monday at a conference in which a Visa Inc. executive hinted that Visa might be open to a delay in a major EMV deadline. But an executive …