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MasterCard Inc.’s latest debit numbers seem to indicate the network is going backwards while bigger rival Visa Inc. is racking up 20% gains. But MasterCard executives say the company’s underlying debit card trends are positive and will start showing up in the operational reports next year. MasterCard on Tuesday reported …
Read More »PCI Council Releases ‘Steady as She Goes’ Update of Security Rules
The new version 2.0 of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) came out Thursday, an upgrade the PCI Security Standards Council says contains no major changes. Still, a document summarizing all the tweaks to the major card networks' common set of data-protection rules runs 20 pages in length. Among …
Read More »As Regulation Looms, Visa Reports Recovering Volumes
The specter of regulation cast a pall of uncertainty over Visa Inc.’s latest financials, but the U.S. operating statistics the world’s largest payment network reported on Wednesday bespoke a transaction machine shifting in high, or least a higher, gear. U.S. debit card payments volume broke the trillion-dollar mark in fiscal …
Read More »Through VeriFone, PayPal Arrives at the Mobile POS
PayPal Inc. took another step toward the physical point of sale on Tuesday with the announcement that it will work with VeriFone Systems Inc. to let merchants accept PayPal payments on VeriFone’s PAYware Mobile application. Starting early next year, merchants will be able take PayPal from customers on the application, …
Read More »Visa Joins the Parade of Networks Adopting Open Platforms
Third-party software applications linked to payment processors’ and networks’ systems are becoming the name of the game for attracting merchants, and No. 1 network Visa Inc. is now a player thanks to upgrades to the Authorize.Net unit of its new CyberSource Corp. subsidiary. The new features on Authorize.Net’s Developer Center …
Read More »NetSpend Pulls Off a Successful IPO Despite MetaBank’s Problems
The storm clouds over prepaid card program manager NetSpend Holdings Inc.’s IPO caused by regulatory problems at MetaBank, the prepaid card program manager’s main issuing partner, cleared Monday, enabling NetSpend to go through with the stock offering at the mid-point of its projected price range. And on Tuesday afternoon, NetSpend’s …
Read More »Processors Report Tentative Signs of Consumer Spending
While tales of unemployment, foreclosures, and other economic woes abound, some payments-industry reports indicate that consumers are coming out of their shells and spending more than they did a year ago, though the picture is still mixed. JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Wednesday reported that its mega merchant-acquiring subsidiary Chase …
Read More »Crackdown on MetaBank Casts a Shadow on NetSpend’s IPO
Federal banking regulators this month cracked down on MetaBank, a major prepaid card issuer, an action that threw into question the pending initial public offering of prepaid card program manager NetSpend Corp. Austin, Texas-based NetSpend is scheduled to price its long-planned IPO on Thursday, according to reports on the financial …
Read More »PCI Compliance Should Be a ‘LifeStyle,’ Says Assessor Verizon
Merchants are most likely to remain compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards and avoid data breaches if they adopt security as a lifestyle, according to a study released earlier this week by Verizon Business. Verizon Business provides audits and other PCI-related services. When we've seen people be …
Read More »PCI Council Issues Guidance on EMV And Point-to-Point Encryption
With end-to-end encryption of payment card data rapidly spreading throughout the credit and debit card industry and calls for the U.S. to replace magnetic-stripe cards with so-called EMV chip-and-PIN cards, the card industry’s security overseer is attempting to ensure that security standards change with the times. The PCI Security Standards …
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