Widely touted as a potent data-masking tool, encryption has been slow to take hold in the payments industry, despite a continuing plague of data breaches. Here’s what’s going on to change that. Kmart, Arby’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Hyatt Hotels.  Those are just some of the merchants that reported data breaches …

Suddenly, person-to-person payments services are gaining utility beyond just paying a person via a smart phone. What gives? So you thought these newfangled person-to-person payment services were meant only to replace cash with smart-phone apps that enable individuals to send and receive money electronically? Think again. All of a sudden, …

Cyber fraud has matured into a solid industry, where economies and efficiencies count. So the lion’s share of hacking efforts is directed at large databases, where a breach is a gift that keeps on giving (as long as it is well-managed). Financial institutions and online merchants, in particular, use databases …

Kansas-based ATM operator Prineta LLC said it has acquired 20 ATMs in Corpus Christi and Coastal South Texas. The seller’s identity was not immediately available. Prineta operates more than 1,000 ATMs nationwide, according to a spokesman. This is the company’s third ATM acquisition in 2017. Forever 21 Inc. reported encryption …

Chargeback.com Inc. released the Chargeback App to aid employees in managing a retailer’s chargeback disputes. The commerce-technology provider Big Commerce agreed to make Visa Checkout available to its more than 55,000 merchant clients. More than 28 million card accounts are enrolled in Visa Checkout, which streamlines the payment process with users’ …

The blockchain, mobile commerce, fraud, data breaches, and authentication were all hot payments topics in 2017. Expect that to continue into 2018 if the prognostications from several payments executives hold true. Much of their outlook centers on identity and authentication, especially as data breaches, large and small, continue to wreak …

The slow conversion of U.S. gasoline pumps from acceptance of only magnetic-stripe payment cards to EMV chip cards took a step forward Tuesday when payment technology provider NCR Corp. announced that a convenience store in upstate New York had completed its first outdoor EMV transaction using an NCR Optic upgrade …

Fit Pay Inc. will bring contactless-payment technology to wearable devices in Australia under an agreement with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. Fit Pay is a unit of Florida-based NXT-ID Inc. Payments provider BlueSnap Inc. announced integrations with six software and services providers. Bluefin Payment Systems said it received …

Seven retail trade groups filed a joint amicus brief in a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court in which 11 states, led by Ohio, are appealing a U.S. Court of Appeals decision that upholds American Express Co.’s rule prohibiting merchants from steering customers to cards with lower acceptance costs. …

Payrange Inc., a developer of mobile-payment applications for washers, dryers, and other machines, introduced its product for Speed Queen and Maytag laundry machines. Subscription-management platform provider Recurly Inc. said it will use international payments provider Adyen to further expand its global business. Cornerstone Bank became the 200th financial institution to …