By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Two million U.S. merchants accept EMV chip cards at the checkout almost a year after the card brands made merchants also liable for counterfeit card use. That tally is a 468% increase from Oct. 1, 2015, the date of the liability shift, says MasterCard Inc., which provided …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews For years, payments providers have struggled to make money on person-to-person payments, and now Square Inc. is taking a swing at the problem. Starting now, Square is offering to make instant transfers of Square Cash funds into users’ bank accounts if they pony up a 1% …

• A consumer class-action lawsuit filed by the United Kingdom government’s former financial-services ombudsman against MasterCard Inc. seeks 14 billion pounds ($18.6 billion) in damages for allegedly charging excessive merchant fees between 1992 and 2008, expenses merchants passed on to consumers. In a statement, MasterCard said it “firmly” disagrees with …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews An eyebrow-raising consumer class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in the United Kingdom against MasterCard Inc. over payment card acceptance costs has parallels with U.S. card litigation, and like its American cousins, the British lawsuit faces an uncertain future. The suit seeks £14 billion ($18.6 billion) in damages, the biggest …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Tech companies like Square Inc. made their reputations by rolling out simple card readers that linked to Apple Inc.’s

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Not thoroughly knowing merchants and submerchants harbors peril for payment facilitators, and that’s one risk the Electronic Transactions Association hopes to alleviate. The ETA, a Washington-based trade group representing the merchant-acquiring industry, expects to release a set of underwriting guidelines for payment facilitators soon. According to Visa …

Consumers and merchants can count the seconds it takes to complete an EMV chip card transaction, and now payments provider Cayan LLC has quantified the total cost in hours: 116 million. That is Boston-based Cayan’s estimate of how much more time consumers will spend at the checkout completing EMV transactions …

• Apple Inc. said it is bringing its Apple Pay mobile-payments service to Japan with its new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus smart phones, and Apple Watch Series 2. Apple Pay will work with Japan’s variant of near-field communication (NFC) contactless technology known as FeliCa. • The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Mobile-payments services have plenty of issues with adoption and usage, but battery fires aren’t likely to be among them. While it’s true that a consumer can’t use a mobile wallet if he’s afraid his smart phone will ignite, payments experts say the problem that developed last …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews The payments industry’s efforts to protect sensitive cardholder data and transactions are moves in the right direction. They’ll have to be, because solutions to the epidemic of data breaches and online fraud are going to have to come from the private sector and from consumers’ own precautions. …