Canada's Interac Association debit network is teaming with France-based semiconductor manufacturer Inside Contactless in a partnership that will include a test next year that will pair PIN-based debit cards with contactless payments. But to keep transactions moving quickly, cardholders will not need to enter a PIN. The test will be …

Visa, MasterCard, and Canada's national debit network are preparing to launch a test in Ontario for a Canadian chip and PIN system that its backers hope will ultimately eliminate the magnetic stripe on all cards and replace signatures on all Visa and MasterCard credit cards. The test will start next …

Sales of high-tech products such as wireless and Internet Protocol payment terminals helped VeriFone Holdings Inc. post a 21% revenue gain in its first fiscal 2006 quarter, but merchants with limited needs also helped out. In an analysts' conference call late Thursday afternoon, chairman and chief executive Douglas G. Bergeron …

Proposals to extend a transaction-messaging protocol based on extensible markup language (XML) to the retail point of sale are meeting some skepticism among current and former POS terminal executives. The protocol, known as interactive financial exchange (IFX), relies on the flexibility of XML, an Internet language, to simplify messaging across …

An ambitious multi-application smart card pilot launched late last year in Barrie, Ontario, is ready to move to its next phase, which will involve signing up 40 more merchant locations in February. Toronto-based Scotiabank, the issuer of the cards, will not release how many it has issued so far, though …