First Data Corp. will update its TransArmor tokenization service in 2015 to make it platform-agnostic, while expanding the number of sales channels it is available through, says a First Data executive. Launched in 2010, TransArmor provides merchants a way to mask sensitive cardholder data by replacing them with a …

Google Inc.’s decision to kill its application programming interface for digital-goods sales may have more to do with the expense and complexity of the market than with any underlying strategy to retreat from the digital-wallet business overall, experts say. Google on Thursday announced it will shut down the 2-year-old API …

• American Express Co. is testing a mobile-payment service built on its Serve platform with the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and their home arena, the Barclays Center. The Brooklyn eWallet is part of the Nets' mobile app for iOS and Android smart phones; fans can store up to 10 payment cards in …

  In the past 12 months, 51% of consumers purchased a physical good using a mobile phone, the highest percentage in five years, potentially signaling a greater propensity for consumer adoption of mobile wallets, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. That is up from 45% in …

Just because merchants have until next October to install terminals capable of processing chip cards and avoid shouldering liability for counterfeit card transactions doesn’t mean most of them will have done so by that date. Many experts, and a number of merchants themselves, have made that point. But major terminal …

By John Stewart Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX) has launched its CurrentC mobile-payment service with “thousands” of consumers in “several American cities,” the program’s chief executive said on Wednesday. The “consumers,” employees of retailers that make up the Needham, Mass.-based MCX consortium, are part of a pilot for the fledgling …

By Jim Daly Results of a merchant processor’s survey released Wednesday claim that only 4% of small businesses have point-of-sale terminals that can accept near-field communication (NFC) contactless mobile payments, and only a small minority currently plan to upgrade their equipment so they can. Meanwhile, payment processor Vantiv Inc. on …

A confident Kenneth I. Chenault appeared before 7,000 payments and financial-services executives on Tuesday to talk about what he touted as American Express Co.’s recent record of success in digital payments. While he runs a 164-year-old company with roots in plastic cards and travelers’ checks, Chenault conceded nothing to his …

The Gimlet Eye The rapid emergence of mobile devices and mobile apps in retail settings has led some observers of the payments business to predict the near-term demise of the humble point-of-sale payments terminal. We demur, for reasons we lay out in our story “POS Terminals Have a Future, And …

  Mobile POS services, integrated software, and migration to the EMV standard are all influencing sales of terminals. Cast aside any preconceptions about the imminent demise of the standalone point-of-sale terminal. That venerable device, which symbolizes payments in the minds of consumers—and recurring revenue for payments professionals—is not going away …