The nascent market for faster funds transfers, which has been on the boil all year, heated up further this week with Fidelity National Information Services Inc.’s announcement of its real-time PayNet network. The new system, which relies on FIS’s NYCE Payments Network LLC debit switch, is live with 200 FIS …

With a major chip card standard bearing down on U.S. merchants, acquirers, and issuers, small merchants in particular could face tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in annual fraud losses they are currently protected from, a processor executive argues. Patty Walters, senior vice president for merchant products and …

The deals PayPal Inc. and Discover Financial Services disclosed last week with processors Vantiv Inc. and Global Payments Inc. are just the start of PayPal’s efforts to win acceptance at physical merchants. PayPal is also starting to woo independent sales organizations to help push its mark into potentially millions of …

Almost universally derided by banks and payment card networks, the Durbin Amendment debit card interchange price controls that took effect a year ago Monday have received mixed reviews from merchant acquirers. But one big acquirer that made Durbin a key part of its sales and retention efforts early on, Heartland …

Open-loop prepaid cards are slowly but steadily gaining market share and now account for nearly 40% of the market, but closed-loop prepaid cards, especially gift cards, remain highly popular with consumers. The 9th annual study of the prepaid card market by Mercator Advisory Group Inc., released in August, shows volumes …

Peter Lucas Flush with new investment, firms that lend to merchants against credit card receipts are more optimistic than ever. Now, they’re laying plans for fixed loans and advances against cash, checks, and alternative payments. It’s been a tough economic recovery for retailers. Not only is consumer spending mired in …

Linda Punch New authentication tools and other technologies are dimming the once-bright line between card-present and card-not-present transactions. Will the card networks take note of that trend any time soon? In an era of mobile wallets, tap-and-go, and other alternative payments using devices other than traditional cards and card readers, …

MasterCard is up, and Visa’s Interlink is down—way down—as the U.S. debit industry realigns six months after the Durbin routing rules took effect. Other PIN-debit networks? It’s a mixed bag. But this card game is far from finished. By Jim Daly Think of countless Westerns where the bad guys storm …

Jane Adler Visa and some card issuers are pushing signature authentication for EMV chip cards, but merchants prefer PINs. So who will win? As financial institutions slowly roll out smart cards in the United States while processors struggle to meet looming deadlines for acceptance, a heated industry debate over authentication …

Karen Epper Hoffman With strong brand appeal abroad, online merchants in the U.S. are pursuing overseas sales as never before. Two big hurdles are currency management and fraud risk. Tommy Bahama saw an opportunity abroad. Executives at the purveyor of island-oriented clothes and home décor knew that their brand would …