Is Apple Inc. laying the groundwork for an application that would let individuals pay each other electronically? Citing “people familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the tech kingpin is doing just that, and has already started talking to a handful of major banks. If the …

As it has for other suppliers to the payment card industry, the conversion of U.S. card payments from security-challenged magnetic-stripe cards to the EMV chip card standard is providing a windfall for leading U.S.-based card manufacturer CPI Card Group Inc. In its first earnings report as a publicly traded company, …

Plastic gift cards remain king, but consumer awareness of mobile and electronic gift cards is increasing. That’s one result from the Retail Gift Card Association’s survey about gift card use. The survey canvassed more than 1,000 consumers. In the survey, fully 49.7% said they understand how to redeem a mobile …

The payment card world is bracing for a spike in card-not-present fraud now that the U.S. is an EMV country. What’s to be done? The U.S. became an “official” EMV country Oct. 1 by virtue of its point-of-sale liability shift. As credit and debit cards with EMV chips and payment …

Square Inc.’s official filing to go public means it will soon exit an exclusive club that’s becoming less exclusive by the month: the so-called unicorns, or privately held companies that are worth $1 billion or more. There are 143 such companies now, up from 123 in early August. Indeed, more …

Square Inc. on Friday set a price range for its planned initial public offering of stock in which the high end could generate about $333 million for the merchant processor. Square filed an amended registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that it plans to sell 25.65 million …

Just as Visa Inc. prepares to swallow up the 38-country Visa Europe system, at least one market researcher has released a report expressing some doubt about how long Visa and its bank card rival, MasterCard Inc., will be able to maintain their share of card-accepting merchants around the world. On …

Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. are shelling out ever more dollars to buy issuer loyalty and induce merchants to route transactions onto their networks. A Digital Transactions News analysis shows the two leading payment card networks are on track to spend approximately $6.75 billon on so-called rebates and incentives in …

Ending months of speculation, Visa Inc. on Monday announced it will buy its European counterpart, London-based Visa Europe Ltd., in a cash, stock, and earn-out deal valued at $23.4 billion. “We’re delighted to be reuniting the Visa family,” said Visa Inc. chief executive Charles W. Scharf in discussing the acquisition …

Visa Inc. may be in the business of credit and debit cards, mobile wallets, tokenization, EMV chips and virtually anything involving electronic payments, but its latest financials tell the real story—it’s all about cash. On a day dominated by news of its pending $23 billion takeover of Visa Europe, Visa …