Regardless of how talks between Google Inc. and American Express Co. turn out, it isn’t likely AmEx will shut down its cardholders’ access to the online search giant’s newly overhauled mobile wallet. Indeed, much of the discussion now is likely focused narrowly on the use of the AmEx brand, says …

The Durbin debit numbers are out, and they aren’t pretty for Visa Inc., the leading debit card player in the U.S. Visa on Wednesday reported that U.S. debit payments volume plummeted 9.8% in the third quarter of fiscal 2012 ended June 30, hitting $266 billion versus $294 billion a year …

Citing “ever-increasing student college expenses,” Heartland Payment Systems Inc. reported on Tuesday that it would eliminate three fees on its student-aid prepaid card. Heartland’s move comes a few weeks after the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), a prominent consumer advocacy group, issued a report highly critical of the …

The chief executive officer of Discover Financial Services isn’t too pleased with what Visa Inc. is doing to retain its lead in the debit marketplace now that the Durbin Amendment’s transaction-routing provisions are in place. Discover owns the Houston-based Pulse network, which like other electronic funds transfer networks stands to …

Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. says it believes fewer than 1.5 million card numbers were taken from its processing system in a data breach disclosed on Friday. Meanwhile, Visa Inc. has removed Global from its list of merchant processors compliant with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), but Global …

Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. confirmed late Friday afternoon that it sustained a data breach following press accounts earlier in the day of a breach variously reported as affecting 50,000 to potentially millions of payment cards. In a press release, Atlanta-based Global “announced it identified and self-reported unauthorized access into …

Backers of mobile-payments programs are more than ever relying on merchants to foot the cost of rewards and offers. But for merchants to buy in, the rules of the game have to change. By Jane Adler As the mobile-payments business gets off the ground and card issuers look for new …

Government authorities are demanding better merchant underwriting and transaction monitoring by payment processors in order to prevent consumer fraud. A laudable goal, but at what cost? by Jim Daly Almost two years ago, a Federal Trade Commission official made it known to a meeting of merchant-acquiring executives that their industry …

Despite a seemingly non-stop parade of headlines about data breaches last year, the number of credit and debit card records compromised actually fell, according to new figures from the Identity Theft Resource Center. The ITRC says it identified 111 data breaches that exposed 3.38 million records in 2011. n In …

  n n n n n n n n n n n n n