Visa Inc.'s announcement this week that starting this summer it will no longer require signatures for transactions of $25 or less at most U.S. merchants heralds a policy that will result in faster and smoother transactions but could also undermine the payments industry's move toward contactless technology. “The merchant proposition …

Americans now spend more than half a trillion dollars a year on PIN-debit cards, but the merchant-acquiring industry is still adjusting to consumers' embrace of point-of-sale debit. At the same time, debit card pricing is shifting from a simple, flat-fee model to a more complex one, which is raising the …

Same-store sales on credit and debit cards continue to drop for small businesses, indicating that any signs of recovery from the recession have yet to be seen by either Main Street merchants or their acquirers. Sales on cards for small merchants fell 12.15% in the fourth quarter last year compared …

A busy year is on tap for the PCI Security Standards Council, with revisions due not only for the main Payment Card Industry data-security standard but also standards governing PIN-entry devices and payment-processing software applications. Plus, the PCI Council plans to take a close look at two widely discussed security …

A growing emphasis by computer hackers on stealing payment card data from hotels and resorts and their increasingly sophisticated malicious software and attack methods are two highlights in a new report from security consulting and technology firm Trustwave Holdings Inc. Trustwave's Global Security Report 2010 summarizes findings from the Chicago-based …

On the Back Burner in Congress, Interchange Heats up in California Proposed regulation of interchange is stalled in Congress, but California lawmakers are investigating the controversial revenue generator for credit and debit card issuers that merchants ultimately pay. It's not clear yet, however, whether the informational hearing held this week …

The cost of data breaches rose slightly last year, but breaches resulting from computer hacking incurred by far the highest losses, according to a new report from privacy and data-security research firm Ponemon Institute LLC. The average cost per compromised customer record rose to $204 in 2009 from $202 in …

PayPal Inc. this week reported a vigorous response from developers to its new open platform and posted strong results in the fourth quarter. More than 12,000 software developers have signed up so far to use new application programming interfaces (APIs) PayPal introduced in November as part of an effort to …

A 35-store deployment at Best Buy Co. Inc., announced late last week, could be the start of a major breakthrough in bill-payment kiosks for TIO Networks Corp. The Vancouver, B.C.-based processor says the machines, which have been live for about four months in a four-market trial in the Atlanta, Las …

Merchant e-Solutions Inc., which on Tuesday announced it is actively marketing online PIN debit to both existing and prospective e-commerce merchants, credits the deep recession of the past year or so with helping to drive merchant interest in the service. “The recession has made [online PIN debit] more important,” says …