It’s a sobering statistic. Only 28.6% of the companies surveyed in the Verizon 2015 PCI Compliance Report were still in compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard a year after a successful validation. Released Thursday, the annual report catalogs the state of PCI compliance gleaned from more than …
Read More »Old-Line Risk Modeling Crimps Money, Time, Expertise for Effective Data Security
With the pressure on to secure the digital fortifications of payment data, security professionals say they need more money, more time, and more knowledgeable staff to defend their companies, according to a survey from data-security company Trustwave. In its 2015 Security Pressures Report, of the more than 1,000 security professionals …
Read More »Anywhere Commerce’s Gateway Course Includes Adding NFC-Payment Capabilities
Mobile point-of-sale company AnywhereCommerce will add near-field communications (NFC) payment capability to its mobile hardware in coming weeks, signaling a further shift along its path to becoming a cloud-based payments gateway. That’s the word from William Nichols, Anywhere Commerce’s chief executive. That strategy, implemented about six months ago when Nichols …
Read More »An Interbank Fee Is a Fly in the Ointment for Retailers Reacting to Same-Day ACH Idea
Merchants that have spent years battling card-acceptance fees are turning a jaundiced eye toward a proposal to speed up payments on the nation’s automated clearing house network. That’s because the same-day settlement proposal, floated in December by NACHA, the ACH’s rules-setting organization, contains a so-called interbank fee that, for some …
Read More »COMMENTARY: The Mobile Wallet Fallacy: How the Wrong Metaphor Led Us Astray
Familiar is easier than unfamiliar. This basic truth explains much misspent effort in the payments world. Wallets are familiar. We all have them. So as it became clear that the physical part of payments—cash, checks, plastic cards—would at some point disappear, it was natural to carry the idea of a …
Read More »New Patent Review Process Brings Relief to Defendants in Infringement Cases
Payments and other financial-services executives have long complained about what they call patent trolls, typically individuals who gain a patent on what some regard as a longstanding business method and then sue practitioners for infringement. In some instances, these cases have succeeded in wringing large settlements out of banks and …
Read More »Shopify Makes App Free and Expands POS Service to iPhones
Online-commerce company Shopify Inc. has made its Shopify POS app free for its merchants and introduced an iPhone version of the payments service, the company recently announced. The app, which launched in 2013, includes a card reader. The new app replaces the Accept Payment option in Shopify Mobile, the Ottawa, Ontario-based company’s …
Read More »Reduction in ID-Fraud Losses Surpasses Decrease in Fraud Victims, Study Finds
Some 12.7 million Americans fell victim to identity fraud last year, a big number but down 3% from 13.1 million in 2013, according to Javelin Strategy and Research’s latest annual ID-fraud study. Even better, estimated fraud losses fell 11% to $16 billion from $18 billion in 2013. While those decreases …
Read More »First, There Was Card on File. Now Boku Brings ‘Phone on File’ to Online Payments
For years, merchants like Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. have streamlined online payments by letting consumers charge stored credit cards with a single click, using a technique called card on file. Now, a similar concept is coming to carrier billing, the payment method used by merchants to charge online purchases …
Read More »Many Questions Hang Over Samsung’s LoopPay Deal And What Will Come Next
There’s a simple reason why Samsung Electronics America Inc. bought LoopPay Inc.: It wants a “truly digital wallet.” That’s the reason given by David Eun, Samsung executive vice president and head of the mega-corporation’s investment unit, Samsung Global Innovation Center. “We have a shared vision to inspire users to transition …
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