Loyalty comes at a hefty price in the payment card world. A Digital Transactions analysis shows Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. could spend approximately $6.75 billion on so-called rebates and incentives to card issuers and merchants in 2015, up 15% from $5.86 billion in 2014. The role financial incentives play …

  With the POS conversion in progress, the next step is to accommodate EMV chip cards in ATMs. That will require planning, money, and expertise. With the EMV liability shift for the point of sale well under way, the next big step in the transformation of the U.S. payment industry …

Banks and Silicon Valley tech companies aren’t the only players crowding into mobile payments. So are retailers and restaurants. Now, with its Chase deal, MCX has thrown the spotlight on the potential for merchant-controlled wallets. As American cities go, you can’t get much more typical, demographically speaking, than Columbus, Ohio. …

Editor’s Note: Early last month, a mobile user who lives in the Columbus, Ohio, metro area agreed to try out CurrentC and report her experiences to Digital Transactions. More than 200 outlets belonging to 10 retail brands are participating in the pilot. She visited a Shell station, a Wendy’s outlet, …

Its IPO finally done, the big processor looks to jump-start growth. Okay, it wasn’t a barnburner. But by completing a long-anticipated initial public offering of stock Oct. 14 that netted about $2.6 billion, First Data Corp. somewhat eased the burden of its $20.8 billion debt millstone. And it created more …

Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay aren’t products, they’re platforms. And that means they’re well set up to succeed, says Thad Peterson. With distribution of the needed functionality increasing on both the merchant and the consumer side, trial and usage will increase steadily over the next few years. The …

Just like law-abiding consumers, criminals hope to score good deals during the holiday shopping season. And luxury items and business services, such as hosting plans and search engine optimization, top their lists, finds an analysis by Forter, a San Francisco-based fraud-prevention specialist. In a report released on Monday, Forter analyzed …

Holiday shoppers took advantage of online deals on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, ringing up $2.8 billion in sales for retailers, according to research firm comScore Inc. Online sales on Thanksgiving topped $1.1 billion, a 9% increase from $1 billion in 2014. Black Friday sales of $1.7 …

By John Stewart It was bad, but it could have been much worse. Just as the celebrated Cyber Monday online-shopping frenzy was gearing up to full blast, PayPal Holdings Inc.’s payment service, a major processor for e-commerce, began hiccupping. Merchants reported problems with processing orders and customers complained about long …

Powered by growth in mobile payments, so-called digital commerce for 2015’s holiday season will grow 14.3% to $70.1 billion from last season’s $61.3 billion, Internet metrics firm comScore Inc. predicted Wednesday. Reston, Va.-based comScore defines digital commerce to include desktop e-commerce and mobile commerce. The firm predicts desktop e-commerce for …