National Payment Card Association is out to prove the obituaries for decoupled debit were, as the saying goes, exaggerated. Not only does the company have 4,000 gas stations accepting its PIN-based debit cards, it expects a major petroleum vendor will begin accepting debit transactions through its platform on a mobile …

Regular readers of these ramblings will have noted in them a skeptical stance toward government meddling in the affairs of private actors, such as merchants, issuers, and processors. We have dissected, more often perhaps than necessary, the regrettable urge to control interchange pricing that has so far found its most …

When PayPal Inc. announced last month that it plans soon to process transactions for people as they watch TV, it looked like just the latest foray by the c-commerce processor into yet another new market. After all, the San Jose, Calif.-based eBay Inc. unit has been pretty aggressive lately about …

Peter Lucas Acquirers routinely lose merchants lured away by offers of lower-cost processing. Result? More acquirers are marketing their own branded POS terminals as a way to boost retention. Ask a merchant acquirer how much it charges a retailer for a point-of-sale terminal and the frequent response is that it’s …

Steve Mott Banks and merchants aren’t natural enemies—they’re only set at odds by the distortions created by the current payments system. In fact, most banks and retailers have much to gain, and little to lose, by working together on a new system built on mobile payments and marketing. (Editor’s note: …

Linda Punch A consensus is forming that regulations specific to mobile payments are coming, but questions about when, who will be involved, and exactly what issues they’ll address are far from settled. With mobile payments increasingly capturing headlines and consumers’ imaginations, can the attention of lawmakers and regulators be far …

A new Georgia law allows non-bank payment processors to charter their own merchant-acquiring banks. Will this charter upend the traditional sponsorship model in the U.S.? By Jim Daly Already a major center for payments companies, Atlanta’s gravitational pull in the merchant-acquiring industry could strengthen thanks to a new Georgia law. …

Peter Lucas Time was, mobile payments was mostly talk. No more. Now, with new features, pricing, and promotion, some providers are pumping out real transaction volume. For months, payments executives have been reading about digital wallets and acceptance applications from some of the biggest names in the business, including Visa …

Startup Revel Systems Inc. this week unveiled a device it is touting as a way for retailers using an Apple iPad for point-of-sale functions to run peripheral devices without an Ethernet router. The device, called the Revel Router, accesses the Internet via the iPad’s cellular connection. San Francisco-based Revel, which …

With EMV chip card payments coming and mobile wallets using near-field communication already here, merchant acquirers are beginning to roll out their own hardware and software to handle the new technologies. This week, the big merchant acquirer Chase Paymentech introduced its “Future Proof” point-of-sale terminal and earlier this month, Merchant …