PayPal (Sort of) Embraces NFC …   With rivals like Google Inc., Visa Inc., and Master­Card Inc. having jumped into near-field communication technology, there has been no little speculation in the payments business about when, or whether, PayPal Inc. would take the plunge.   Wonder no more. The eBay …

  By Lauri Giesen   Now that the Durbin rates are in place for debit cards, questions are swirling about debit’s growth prospects, the fate of PIN debit and of the small-ticket market, and the implications for prepaid cards.       Imagine a world where banks try to get …

  Discover can point to some major triumphs since it was launched by Sears a quarter-century ago, not least its success in taking on Visa and MasterCard. But a fast-changing payments landscape offers no assurance of future success. Discover’s plan: It pays to network.   By Jim Daly     …

  By Karen Epper Hoffman   Disbursing government benefits via prepaid cards has become an increasingly popular outlet for public agencies seeking operational efficiency and banks hoping to find new avenues to revenue and client retention.       For the beneficiaries of government benefits, “getting carded” is arguably a …

  Frankly, a Level 4 validation mandate by industry leaders in the payments space would only cement in place a practice that already exists, but is not enforced uniformly.   We’ve had the PCI DSS for years, yet breaches continue to put small merchants out of business. The cause is …

If the best present for a merchant acquirer is more transactions to process, 2011’s Christmas has already arrived. Various reports from acquirers, payment processors, and research firms indicate that electronic transaction volumes are up sharply over 2010’s levels despite the gloom that still colors most economic news. Dallas-based Chase Paymentech, …

The prepaid card industry is marching to new frontiers as November heads toward a close. Intuit Inc. on Tuesday is expected to launch a prepaid Visa card for new merchants in its GoPayment smart-phone-based service, and the Federal Reserve Board approved prepaid card program manager Green Dot Corp.’s plan to …

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  Open-fare payments for public transportation got a big boost when the Chicago Transit Authority announced it had awarded a $454 million, 12-year contract to Cubic Transportation Systems to build and maintain a payment system that accepts contactless cards. The CTA, which provides about 500 million rides a year, thus …

  The Star EFT network, which has been working for several years on ways to enable cardholders to conduct PIN-debit transactions with online merchants, said on Thursday it will offer a service from CardinalCommerce Corp. that promises to allow issuers to choose how to authenticate users of PIN-debit cards in …