Payments executives already know the coming changeover from magnetic-stripe cards to chip cards using the Europay-Visa-MasterCard (EMV) standard will be expensive—about $11 billion, according to a new report from Aite Group LLC. But Aite notes that while likely to greatly reduce fraud at the point of sale, the big switcheroo …

Lauri Giesen The ranks of regional EFT networks have dwindled from more than 100 in the 1980s to about 20 today. What are the smaller ones doing to stay alive—and thrive? In the mid-1980s, the United States had about 150 electronic funds transfer networks. Apart from their often colorful names—bygone …

Karen Epper Hoffman PINless debit card transactions are gaining favor as online merchants latch onto this speedy payment alternative. But will PINless debit’s rise give debit networks much of a boost in the short term? Call it PINless debit version 2.0. The ability to make a payment with a debit …

A common solution has been found that will ease EMV migration and permit compliance with the Durbin Amendment, but all networks must support the solution to realize its full benefits, says Terry Dooley. The key to an easier, more affordable, and less complex solution for EMV in the United States …

  Prepaid card program manager Green Dot Corp. will take over direct issuance of the Walmart MoneyCard prepaid card from General Electric Co.’s GE Capital Retail Bank under a deal Green Dot announced on Monday. The acquisition continues Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot’s effort to consolidate issuance of the prepaid card …

It is not the purpose of this column, this month, to draw up a bill of indictment against the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) specification for chip cards. After all, EMV has acquired an air of inevitability in the United States now that the four principal card networks have issued deadlines for processor …

Why Is First Data Dissing PayPal POS? Discover Financial Services has recruited 50 merchant acquirers to bring acceptance of leading online payment system PayPal to more than 2 million physical merchant locations by year’s end. Still holding out, at least as late as late May, was No. 1 merchant processor …

Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip cards have entered the classic phase of huge percentage growth from a very small base, according to new U.S. figures from Visa Inc. The leading network this week reported that American financial institutions had issued 3.5 million Visa-branded EMV cards as of March 31, an increase of …

  Visa Inc.’s decision to license a version of its VisaNet processing network to JPMorgan Chase & Co. generated controversy in merchant-acquiring circles when the two companies announced their deal in February, but now Visa says it is getting inquiries from other client financial institutions that may be interested in …

Lauri Giesen The early battles in the debit-network war triggered by the Durbin Amendment took a big toll on Visa’s Interlink brand, but now Visa has converted an obscure program into a powerful weapon. How are the EFT networks responding? Before April 2012, making a decision about which network over …