Visa Gives a Push to Prepaid Cards   If Visa Inc. could be personified as an illustrious 19th Century editor, he might be saying, “Go prepaid, young man.”   The No. 1 payment card network’s interchange schedule effective Oct. 1, the day new federal debit card interchange price controls …

  By Jane Adler   Rightly or wrongly, lots of investors are mesmerized by the high-profile startup Square. But it’s not the only newbie transforming the payments industry as venture-capital firms scramble to find the next big idea.       Some startup companies get all the attention.   The …

  By John Stewart and Jim Daly   Having beaten the banks on debit card pricing, they’re now staking out positions on mobile payments and chip cards. This could be the start of the decade of the merchant in the business of consumer payments.       Who controls consumer …

  So far, mobile-acceptance products for merchants have been limited to cards. Meanwhile, entrants in this market from outside the payments business tend to be long on tech but short on security. Both factors spell trouble, says Bill Clark.   The skyrocketing popularity of card-based mobile-payment solutions is certainly impressive, …

  Two executives who helped found CoCard Marketing Group LLC have left the Nashville, Tenn.-based independent sales organization to start their own ISO with what appears to be a unique ownership structure based on shareholding for participating offices. “Our company is going to be based on shares of stock,” says …

  What Keeps ATM Execs up at Night?       Complying with new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and fighting fraudsters who put skimmers on their machines rank high on the to-do lists of ATM managers.   The findings come in a new report from Aite Group LLC …

  Jim Daly   Merchant acquirers are keeping a watchful eye on the bank card networks as the publicly held companies seemingly move onto turf acquirers regard as their own. Are acquirers’ fears about network ambitions justified?       Moving transactions from merchant locations to cardholder accounts and back …

  By Karen Epper Hoffman   A fixture in online gaming, virtual currencies are moving into other digital markets and may break into the physical world. But will acceptance costs and regulatory concerns stymie their growth?       Virtual currency has long been seen as little more than the …

  Linda Punch   Increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes show that personal identification numbers are more vulnerable than once thought. Bring in the reinforcements.       For the past 40 years, personal identification numbers have built an enviable reputation as a nearly inviolable security feature. They’re much more secure than …

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