Canada seems to have found a workable formula for rolling out EMV technology.   Can the U.S. learn from it?   By Peter Lucas   Payment card executives in the United States looking to follow a model for how to roll out EMV cards and terminals need look no …

  Cover Story Mobile-payment schemes proliferate but innovations abound in all corners of the new world of electronic-payment systems competing for consumer and merchant adoption.   By John Stewart, Jim Daly, and Linda Punch       We’re putting on weight. First published in 2009, Digital Transactions’ Field Guide to …

Acquiring Peter Lucas The low margins earned on vending-machine sales have historically worked against card acceptance. But now, with evidence of a sales lift from cards, processors and gateways are pushing into vending harder than ever. It’s a frequent scenario: A family is out for fun at an amusement park. …

Can the fast pace of innovation  that has characterized the prepaid card  sector in recent years continue  as lawmakers and regulators  increasingly target the business? By Linda Punch After years of skirting the edges of the industry, the prepaid card market finally is getting a toehold in the mainstream of …

Consumers brought holiday cheer back to merchants and payment processors in the run-up to Christmas this year, spending 5.5% more during the period than they did last year and giving signs that they are opening wallets and purses again after a long recession and rocky recovery. Especially noteworthy were sharp …

Next year is likely to be a breakthrough year for a technology that lets consumers deposit checks using a camera-equipped mobile phone, according to a research report released this week. While mobile remote deposit capture (RDC) has been confined to a handful of pilots and has had its share of …

Often overlooked as the trend toward mobile payments picks up steam is the extent to which mobile phones, and especially smart phones, influence transactions even if they aren’t used to consummate them. The most recent example of this notion is a finding by IDC Retail Insights that 28% of consumers’ …

A new electronic gift card launched by The Home Depot Inc. that lets customers upload and send video images—apparently the first such card in the market—is performing reasonably well in the early going for the huge home-improvement chain. “It’s a little bit early, but it has met expectations so far,” …

While tales of unemployment, foreclosures, and other economic woes abound, some payments-industry reports indicate that consumers are coming out of their shells and spending more than they did a year ago, though the picture is still mixed. JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Wednesday reported that its mega merchant-acquiring subsidiary Chase …

Merchants are most likely to remain compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards and avoid data breaches if they adopt security as a lifestyle, according to a study released earlier this week by Verizon Business. Verizon Business provides audits and other PCI-related services. When we've seen people be …