Each reported breach is a nightmare, but the good news is that each one can also teach acquirers and merchants useful lessons about securing payments data. When fast-food chain Wendy’s Co. became the latest brand-name merchant to fall prey to a data-stealing malware attack in late January, the news served …

Each reported breach is a nightmare, but the good news is that each one can also teach acquirers and merchants useful lessons about securing payments data. When fast-food chain Wendyäó»s Co. became the latest brand-name merchant to fall prey to a data-stealing malware attack in late January, the news served …

Patience, it seems, will be the watchword when it comes to merchant adoption of EMV chip card technology, while the number of cards issued bearing a chip continues to grow. A new report from The Strawhecker Group, a payments consultancy, finds that 37% of U.S. merchant locations are EMV-ready, falling …

The onset of 2017 will usher in the year of the smart phone in e-commerce, according to a projection released Tuesday by eMarketer Inc. The New York City-based researcher says that next year, for the first time, more than half of all so-called digital buyers—51.2%—will make at least one purchase …

Starbucks Corp. keeps adding digital caffeine to its mobile-payments and loyalty offerings built around a prepaid card. The Seattle-based coffee king on Thursday reported that 21% of its U.S. transactions were paid on the Starbucks mobile app in the quarter ended Dec. 27, up from 20% in the previous quarter …

Open-loop financial-services prepaid cards will be one of the fastest-growing segments for prepaid over the next two years, forecasts the “12th Annual U.S. Prepaid Cards Market Forecasts, 2015-2018,” recently released by Mercator Advisory Group Inc. The report, which gauges the growth potential of both open-loop and closed-loop prepaid cards, also …

If history is any guide, card-not-present fraud will spike now that EMV has officially arrived in the United States. Can a growing array of fraud-prevention technologies stem the tide? When it comes to plying their deceptive trade, fraudsters exploit the weakest link in the security chain. With the EMV chip …

By John Stewart n If, as the saying goes, cash is king, it’s clinging stubbornly to its throne. Despite the emergence of e-commerce and the secular rise of payment cards around the world, cash usage is growing nearly as fast globally as cashless payments, according to a report released this …

An analysis of recent credit and debit card transaction data by credit-union services organization The Members Group gives some interesting insights about the penetration of two new payment channels in the U.S.—EMV chip cards and mobile payments. For example, EMV transactions amounted to 26% of all transactions that TMG processed over …

By John Stewart What kind of technology are grocery stores, drug stores, and convenience stores most interested in? Not mobile payments, at least not right now. That’s the conclusion of the Los Angeles-based Center for Advancing Retail & Technology LLC, which operates an online marketplace of retail solutions for merchants …