If history is any guide, card-not-present fraud will spike now that EMV has officially arrived in the United States. Can a growing array of fraud-prevention technologies stem the tide? When it comes to plying their deceptive trade, fraudsters exploit the weakest link in the security chain. With the EMV chip …

More states are mulling the sale of lottery tickets through fuel pumps. Is this niche market a good bet for new payment-card volume? A mere handful of the 43 states with state-sponsored lotteries permit game sales from non-traditional venues such as fuel pumps. Usually, a person looking for a little …

As 2015 drew to a close, it became clear that the business of creating and processing tokens in place of actual card credentials has hit the big time. Three of the major general-purpose card networks—American Express Co., MasterCard Inc., and Visa Inc.—have now created so-called digital-enablement services that handle token …

Not long after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shook the industry last month with its announcement that the chain plans to roll out its own mobile-payment service, questions arose about its commitment to Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX), the mobile-wallet consortium that Wal-Mart helped launch three years ago. Starting in December, Wal-Mart …

Ever since the launch of Apple Pay more than a year ago, mobile wallets have followed a pattern of recruiting financial institutions to enable their network-branded credit and debit cards to work in the wallet apps. But with their proprietary cards, retailers are getting in on this action, as well, …

As the EMV reality squeezes card fraudsters out of the card-present business, they are all crowding into the online racket. U.S. retailers should be ready. With retailers seeking advice about this, the first question I ask usually raises eyebrows. I don’t ask about protocols or gadgets. I ask to check …

The real reason mobile payments haven’t taken off is that they haven’t offered anyone a compelling reason to replace cash or cards, says Nick Holland. Around 15 years ago, I wrote a thesis on the potential for mobile payments using radio-frequency ID technologies, such as Bluetooth and the recently announced …

Data breaches that compromised credit and debit card information were constantly in the news in 2015, but the number of cards affected is way down from the totals for 2014 and 2013, according to a nonprofit that monitors breaches. The San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center reports that as of …

As 2016 beckons, multiple challenges and opportunities await the payments industry and the Electronic Transactions Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group that represents the merchant-acquiring and -processing industry. Incoming ETA board president Greg Cohen says the association, and the payments industry it represents, are in the midst of a transformation …

By John Stewart Market signals may be mixed, but on balance the 2015 holiday season will be a merry one for plastic and digital gift cards, according to Mercator Advisory Group. The Maynard, Mass.-based research firm’s annual forecast for November and December estimates loads on closed-loop U.S. gift cards will …