Mocapay Inc., one of the earliest startups in the mobile-payments space, finally is poised to go national with new partners, a different pricing model, and a broadened set of technological options that its president says makes payments by smart phone easier for merchants and consumers. Mocapay launched in 2006 and …

With both Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. now on the record with plans to encourage the adoption of EMV chip card and mobile payments in the U.S, it seems all but certain that the magnetic-stripe payment card’s days are numbered. In fact, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. already is seeing some EMV …

A longstanding truism in the acquiring business is that smaller merchants tend to generate more profit than their larger counterparts. But now research has emerged to show that smaller online merchants are even more profitable for acquirers and processors than brick-and-mortar stores of the same size. In fact, across all …

  Leading payment processor First Data Corp. reported on Wednesday that its merchant-acquiring operations are enjoying a temporary profit lift and its Star electronic funds transfer network has won more than 20 new contracts from financial institutions as a result of the Durbin Amendment. But whether those new contracts actually …

All eyes in the payments business these days are on mobile, especially on the potential smart phones have to change the way people shop for stuff and then pay for it in physical stores. So when talk turns to mobile payments in this context, it usually refers to a technology …

Virtual Currencies: Bust-Out Ahead? Witness the recent travails of the euro if you want proof of how hard it is for any new currency, even a physical currency backed by multiple governments, to attain and retain widespread usage and acceptance. The obstacles blocking the new breed of electronic currencies from …

n A payments executive for Sinclair Oil outlines her frustrations with data security—and argues for a major upgrade to EMV. by Trinette Huber We’ve all been hearing a lot about EMV, or chip card technology, lately as some banks and merchants actually issue chip cards and install the terminals that …

With m-commerce shifting into high gear, consumers are expecting a faster, user-friendlier checkout experience. Delivering that kind of experience won’t come from advances in handset hardware, but software. by Peter Lucas In the world of mobile commerce less is more, especially when it comes to checkout. Savvy merchants learned years …

Not content with restrictions on debit card interchange, merchants are now targeting bigger game. A set of major antitrust cases could be just the opening salvo—and a trial is set to start in September. By Linda Punch While the card networks and banks are still wrestling with the repercussions from …

Too many mobile-wallet approaches exclude ISOs and other merchant acquirers, to the detriment not only of the acquirers but also of merchants and even of the wallet providers themselves, says Paul Coppinger. Paul Coppinger is president of Apriva, Scottsdale, Ariz.   There can be little doubt that, while there are …