• On Track Innovations Ltd. launched its “My Chip Buddy” marketing effort to support the company’s newly introduced PayEnable platform, which allows manufacturers and designers to build payments capability into their products using near-field communication (NFC) technology. • Grocer The Kroger Co. says chargebacks related to its EMV rollout contributed …

  Nothing like an unexpected chargeback to turn a recalcitrant merchant into an EMV believer. According to new survey results from Javelin Strategy and Research, only 8% of small and so-called micro businesses queried in February who didn’t accept EMV chip cards cited as a reason the lack of a …

  With its enforcement action against Dwolla Inc., announced on Wednesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made plain it is expanding its writ to include data-security practices and putting digital-payments startups in its cross-hairs. The ripple effect could reach a number of payments providers if they are incautious about data …

While the mobile wallets launched by corporate giants Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. have sparked a good deal of publicity, not much is known about actual adoption and usage so far, since the companies have been characteristically tightlipped. But that doesn’t mean researchers who …

An exclusive coterie of card networks runs the business of issuing and managing payment tokens. But that elite club soon may have more members. Looking for a business with growth opportunities? Look no further, ladies and gentlemen, than at the business of the token service provider. A sexy business? Definitely …

Biometric security has gained enormous momentum since my first warnings on this subject several years ago in this column. By now, millions of us have surrendered our biological patterns, exposing our fingerprints, facial features, palm layouts, irises, ocular vein structures, even our heartbeat patterns. And once this information is out …

Merchant cash advances can be a God-send for merchants unable to secure traditional bank funding and agents looking to supplement their income. But that boon often comes at a painful premium. The merchant cash advance (MCA) is a common form of alternative lending offered by private lenders. Many independent sales …

Exactly one year ago in this space, we argued, in a little essay called “Less Static for NFC,” that the long-awaited arrival of near-field communication as a mainstream point-of-sale technology had been brought nearer by two developments. One was the decision by Apple Inc. to let its upcoming Apple Watch …

In a move that recognizes the powerful role application developers play in the global payments arena, Visa Inc. last month opened scores of its application programming interfaces to thousands of outsiders worldwide, including merchants, banks, and technology companies. The new program, called Visa Developer, embraces some 155 APIs and includes …

It’s common for consumers who use a recurring service to designate a credit or debit card that the service provider can charge for amounts that may differ from month to month. With the automated clearing house, this is much less common. Dwolla Inc. says that’s because it’s too difficult and …