Steve Mott Banks and merchants aren’t natural enemies—they’re only set at odds by the distortions created by the current payments system. In fact, most banks and retailers have much to gain, and little to lose, by working together on a new system built on mobile payments and marketing. (Editor’s note: …

A network fee introduced this year by Visa Inc. hands so-called merchant aggregators like PayPal Inc. an unfair cost advantage relative to traditional acquirers and independent sales organizations, a top executive with one leading ISO contends. The fee, known as the fixed acquirers network fee (FANF), is a complicated affair …

The chief executive officer of Discover Financial Services isn’t too pleased with what Visa Inc. is doing to retain its lead in the debit marketplace now that the Durbin Amendment’s transaction-routing provisions are in place. Discover owns the Houston-based Pulse network, which like other electronic funds transfer networks stands to …

It’s an obscure transaction code that even many payments people haven’t heard of. But POS, the code established by the automated clearing house network for debit card payments, is surging as major merchants adopt the payment method and offer significant rewards to customers who use it. The POS code, which …

Jane Adler Durbin’s cap on interchange for big banks was supposed to be the death knell for debit card rewards. Instead, rewards programs are flourishing, albeit with a few twists. “Relationship rewards,” anyone? After caps on debit card interchange rates went into effect last fall, KeyBank took a contrarian approach. …

Hey, mobile-payments types: the fraudsters  are gunning for you. What are you doing to keep fraud at bay? So far, the known mobile-payments security lapses have proven to be more embarrassments than the truly damaging data breaches seen with more conventional payment methods. For example, Square Inc. initially passed out …

Lauri Giesen When the Durbin rate cap on debit took effect, it was supposed to give merchants a big break on acceptance costs. But sellers of items like soda and bus fares have seen their costs balloon, and that’s hurting emerging-payments markets. Lower costs are what most retailers should have …

The federal government’s new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fixed general-purpose reloadable prepaid cards in its regulatory sights Wednesday with a notice of proposed rulemaking and a public hearing in Durham, N.C., where its senior officials heard both praise for and condemnations of the cards. The CFPB said it would examine …

An obscure transaction code used by the automated clearing house network for debit card payments is surging as major merchants adopt the payment method and offer significant rewards to customers who use it. The POS code, which refers to ACH debit entries initiated at an electronic terminal, accounted for 4.59 …

Visa Inc. in October will double the current $25 purchase limit in its Visa Easy Payment Service to $50 under which no signature or PIN entry will be required for credit and debit card transactions at grocery and discount stores. The network also is changing some chargeback procedures that it says will …