By Jim Daly The Canadian government’s move last week to strengthen its Code of Conduct for the payment card industry and the European Union’s approval in March of rock-bottom interchange rates for credit and debit cards has observers wondering if more regulation is in store for the U.S. merchant-acquiring industry. …

Retailers will take their time upgrading their point-of-sale systems for compatibility with the EMV chip card standards, finds EKN Research’s “2015 Retail Point-of-Sale Blueprint” report. Only a minority of retailers—mostly the largest ones—will be ready by Oct. 1, though within two years 70% of them will be ready for the …

By Jim Daly Coming off a winter of discontent, American Express Co. late Thursday reported some respectable financial results for the first quarter. The loss of its relationships with Costco Wholesale Corp. in Canada, however, affected charge volumes, a prelude to the loss of Costco as a merchant acceptor and …

Debit-rewards programs offered by banks appear to be rebounding a little, with younger consumers more motivated than other age groups to use them. That’s according to a new report from payments-research firm Mercator Advisory Group Inc. Debit rewards programs fell out of favor with banks following passage of the Durbin …

Merchants have spent years battling card-acceptance fees, so they’re 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, contemplates a so-called interbank fee for each zippier …

In less than one grim month, American Express lost two cobranded partnerships and a major court case involving its merchant-acceptance rules. But the 165-year-old payments company is far from finished. As cold as this winter was in most of the country, it was considerably chillier at American Express Co. The …

Chip card acceptance is far from ubiquitous six months ahead of the U.S. liability shift. As October’s big EMV liability shift approaches, just how ready are U.S. merchants to accept the chip cards that are so common elsewhere in the world? Estimates vary, but as of early spring the state …

The threat of assuming fraud losses carries some weight with  merchants, but not as much as some might think.  Converting many of these merchants to EMV will be a struggle.   Independent sales organizations, acquirers, and processors of all sizes are about to embark on a massive education campaign designed …

Right now, all eyes are on the next six months.  But what about after the liability shift?  What happens then? Whether or not any particular merchant is ready for EMV by Oct. 1, payments executives are figuring on two things as pretty much sure bets after that date. One is …

By Jim Daly With the U.S. payment card industry’s eyes glued on the coming of EMV chip cards, the main standards body for card security is trying to remind merchant acquirers, merchants, and card issuers that there is more to security than simply embedding a chip into a piece of …