If you are an issuer of Visa or MasterCard, your deadline for participating in the Apple Pay service set to debut later this month has already passed. It was Tuesday, and issuers didn’t have much time to think about it (let alone perform a technical due diligence or negotiate terms). …

Security Notes Data breaches are common, mostly limited, and unpublicized. Money is stolen, secrets exposed, powerful men embarrassed, implicated, shamed. But these are usually not catastrophic. By contrast, when a merchant neglects to safeguard the private personal data entrusted to it by its customers, the loss of a carefully crafted …

Though the Apple Pay service has drawbacks, Apple’s legendary marketing chops will probably, at long last, let wallets cash in. What hath Apple wrought? At a hugely hyped event Sept. 9 near its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Apple Inc. unveiled the next iteration of its iconic iPhone—the iPhone 6 and …

  Bank of America Corp. isn’t waiting for 2015 to convert its debit card portfolio to plastic that supports Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip transactions. The Charlotte, N.C.-based banking giant announced Tuesday it will begin issuing debit chip cards to new customers in October, with cards for existing accountholders issued as these …

Apple Inc. is selling a ton of its new iPhone 6 smart phones, but before launching the device earlier this month it had already attracted a much less desirable crowd of devotees: phishers. Among all brands targeted by these cybercriminals, Apple is now tops, and the company’s expected introduction next …

  Payment processors First Data Corp. and Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) will have key roles in securing transactions using tokenization technology for payments consumers make with Apple Inc.’s newly announced Apple Pay mobile-payments scheme. The Cupertino, Calif.-based computer giant made the announcement as part of its unveiling Tuesday of …

After weeks of fevered anticipation, it’s finally out. Apple Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a new payments system called Apple Pay along with its iPhone 6 and large-screen iPhone 6 Plus smart phones and a snazzy new smart watch. As predicted, the updated iPhone uses near-field communication (NFC) technology for fast …

  The Merchant Customer Exchange, a retailer-controlled mobile payment scheme, has given its service a name. Dubbed CurrentC, the service will not be available outside of testing until 2015. First announced in 2012, the long-gestating scheme aims to give participating retailers their own mobile-wallet service that eschews the traditional payment …

How Acquirers Are Toting up Tablets With scores of tablet-based POS systems to choose from, processors, ISOs, and resellers must sort out which factors are most important for portfolio growth and profitability.    Sometimes, having too many options hampers the ability to make a decision. That may be the case …

The Networks’ Signature Charade The card brands should stop pushing signatures and start working with merchants to implement effective authentication, says Mark Horwedel. Merchants view the EMV migration as an opportunity to eliminate an outdated process that inflicts billions of dollars in damages on consumers and merchants. Few things ruffle …