Trends & Tactics Android’s Edge in the Smart-Phone Skirmish The splashy news in smart phones last month was Verizon Wireless’s announcement that it will start marketing the iPhone, breaking AT&T Mobility’s long-held exclusivity on Apple Inc.’s popular device. But there was quieter mobile news that will be of greater consequence …

M-Commerce What NFC Should Look Like Steve Mott By most accounts, the wireless-carrier-based near-field communication (NFC) mobile payments initiative known as Isis (formally announced late last year but rumored for months before) is still falling short of the mark with respect to a winning formula for prying payments away from …

Cover Story Going for a Checkmate VeriFone’s buyout of Hypercom will further its dominance of America’s POS terminal industry, which is in the throes of rapid change. Is there life beyond the box? BY JIM DALY It’s not your father’s point-of-sale business any more. It’s not even your older brother’s. …

The War on Attrition Jane Adler High attrition rates are likely to continue as the economy finds its footing and competition among acquirers for merchants remains fierce. After being rocked by recession and weak recovery for several years, merchant acquirers may have felt like they turned the corner in December …

Despite the hype about mobile payments, most consumers still aren't comfortable using smart phones to pay for things, according to new research from the Bank Administration Institute and Hitachi Consulting. That, however, could change, and change soon. The study also shows that debit remains consumers' preferred payment choice, though its …

Following through on a tax-season initiative it announced last September, the U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday launched a pilot program that could enable more than half a million low- and moderate-income individuals to receive tax refunds via prepaid cards. Next week, the Treasury Department will begin sending letters to 600,000 …

Rewriting the Transaction Routing Rules The Durbin Amendment throws out exclusive debit network agreements and gives merchants more freedom to route debit transactions according to their wishes. Who will win and lose in the post-Durbin world? BY JIM DALY By the time you read this, the Federal Reserve Board will …

Security Notes Detecting the Enemy Within Gideon Samid / Gideon@AGSgo.com In the overwhelming majority of cases, cyber-criminal activity is carried out, or at least involves, a trusted insider. But though most of our clients know this, they still don’t take action. The reason is obvious: Any hunt for that rotten …

Transactors ‘We’re Betting on the Gesture of Tapping’John Stewart By building bridges between the online and offline worlds, Bling Nation hopes to popularize ‘tapping in’ at merchants. It’s all about going viral, says one of the mobile-payments startup’s top executives. Scarcely two years old, Bling Nation Ltd. has already deployed …

Supporters of WikiLeaks attacked the Visa and MasterCard Web sites on Wednesday after the bank card networks cut off donation transactions to the controversial online anti-secrecy organization that recently disclosed hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. State Department cables. The attacks, which slowed down the networks’ Web sites or made …