In a stunning announcement that surprised many observers, Fiserv Inc. said Wednesday morning it has struck a deal to acquire First Data Corp. with what the parties say will be the biggest ever such transaction in the payments and financial-technology businesses. The all-stock deal, expected to close in the third …

In just a matter of months, this new e-commerce fraud has emerged to exploit weak or non-existent links between merchants’ online and physical stores. If you’re a retailer, what’s not to like about offering consumers the option to buy online and pick up in-store? Most customers who use the service …

Cash discounts are all the rage as merchants seek to lower payment card acceptance costs. But critics say cash discounts all too often are surcharges in disguise. Few topics last year drew more interest from independent sales organizations and merchant acquirers than cash discounts. Sessions about the pricing strategy were …

Large companies are getting bombarded by approximately 530 bot attacks per day, and the vast majority of more than 200 firms surveyed have at least one person on their security teams devoted solely to bot defense, according to Osterman Research Inc. Osterman, a Black Diamond, Wash.-based research firm that works …

There are plenty of good bots out there, but the bad ones are making life difficult for financial institutions and merchants. And it’s only getting worse. What’s to be done? To paraphrase Glinda, the good witch in L. Frank Baum’s Oz novels and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz: …

Cloud connectivity, apps, and features beyond payments are shaping the next evolution of the point-of-sale terminal. With all the discussion surrounding merchant adoption of point-of-sale systems and integrated payments, one might think the days of the conventional POS terminal are numbered. Their days as an isolated piece of equipment with …

Giant card issuer Chase may not be big enough to single-handedly make contactless cards commonplace in the United States, but now that it plans to once again issue tap-and-go credit and debit plastic, the money-center bank could come close. Chase, a unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co., says it will …

As merchant acquirers prepare for an expected tide of holiday purchase transactions, they might notice that more big-ticket spending will be originating this year from mobile devices, according to Internet metrics firm Comscore Inc. Purchases of big-ticket items, which Reston, Va.-based Comscore defines as those costing more than $500, “hit …

More than 40% of retail executives surveyed for the National Retail Federation’s latest payments study say they have already dropped signature requirements for payment card transactions or plan to do so before this year is out. Another 13% plan to end signature requirements in 2019. The actions come in the …

The era of the smart point-of-sale terminal has already dawned, and now the race is on for dominance. North American Bancard Holdings LLC on Thursday launched its PayAnywhere smart terminal, which runs on NAB’s PayAnywhere mobile-payment software. The move follows news earlier this week that terminal startup Poynt Co. is …