By Jim Daly Another sign that the U.S. EMV conversion has a long way to go emerged last week when a survey of more than 990 independent business owners by Newtek Business Services Inc. revealed that 71% of respondents were unaware of the so-called EMV liability shift coming on Oct. …

Some 12.7 million Americans fell victim to identity fraud last year, a big number but down 3% from 13.1 million in 2013, according to Javelin Strategy and Research’s latest annual ID-fraud study. Even better, estimated fraud losses fell 11% to $16 billion from $18 billion in 2013. While those decreases …

When Apple Inc. launched its Apple Pay mobile-payments service in October, the computing giant hoped the new wallet would help sell smart phones and banks hoped it would help drive transactions on their cards. Now new research indicates both hopes are being realized, but the risk for financial institutions may …

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is joining the mobile-wallet and payments fray with its expected launch this summer of Samsung Pay, a service that uses near-field communication (NFC) and technology from LoopPay Inc. it recently acquired. Samsung Pay, available on the coming Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smart phones this summer, could …

Heaven forbid. Could it be that merchant acquirers pad their numbers about big merchants’ compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI)? A recent study by the Merchant Acquirers’ Committee, an association of more than 500 acquirers, independent sales organizations, risk managers and other acquiring-industry players, found that the …

The boom in mobile point-of-sale systems may have outstripped the ability of merchants and merchant-service providers to provide the hands-on support needed to keep the tablets humming. That’s where a 7-month-old, San Francisco-based startup called Boomtown Inc. sees an opening. For a fee, it helps small merchants choose, install, network, …

A gas-station and convenience-store chain is proving you don’t have to sell fancy coffee concoctions to generate impressive results with a mobile app. The program called SmartPay from Cumberland Farms, which operates nearly 600 stores in eight Northeastern states, enrolled 100,000 customers in the first 45 days after its 2013 …

From search engines to social media, online competition has heated up for ISOs and acquirers. What does it take to stay ahead of the pack? If acronyms and terms like SEO, PPC, unique clicks, likes, and tweets sound unfamiliar, the latest digital-marketing efforts used by independent sales organizations and acquirers …

Funding is pouring into payments technology at a furious rate. Now startups and established firms alike are wondering: How long can it last, and what’s the long-term impact? If one thing is certain about the six years or so that have passed since the financial crisis, it’s that nobody can …

For breached retailers, responding after the fact is responding too late, say Aaron P. Simpson and Chris Hydak. Incident-response plans should not be static. Rather, they should be living and breathing documents that are tested and updated periodically. It’s clear that cybercriminals have zeroed in on the retail industry, primarily …