Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The U.S. Department of Justice’s controversial Operation Choke Point, an effort to cut off high-risk merchants’ access to electronic payments by challenging the banks and processors that serve them, continues to draw fire. The latest missile comes in the form of a bill from U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., who …
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The Gimlet Eye: Five Truths About Digital Transactions
It’s July, and what with the summer doldrums having set in, we thought it might be timely to review a few principles we’ve learned over the years about digital transactions. Some of you may well disagree with any number of these, and if you do, I hope you’ll email me …
Read More »Trends & Tactics
You Said How Many EMV Cards? The conversion of U.S. magnetic-stripe credit and debit cards to the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card standard is finally under way, but just how quickly most Americans will be carrying smart cards is a matter of debate. Citing reports from industry suppliers, the EMV Migration …
Read More »M-Commerce: For Billers, Mobile Isn’t Optional
Richard Crone and Heidi Liebenguth To ward off third-party interlopers, billers must understand their bill is their brand. That means seizing the unprecedented opportunity that lies in mobile apps. Remember the bad old days of online-banking bill pay? Billers were forced to accept bulk payments in the form of so-called …
Read More »Cover Story: I Want You For EMV
The U.S. is in the throes of adopting chip cards, but the immensity and complexity of its payment card industry ensures the migration to chip cards is no easy task. The biggest issue is getting all merchants on board. By Kevin Woodward Naiveté is not a trait payment card industry …
Read More »Security: Locking Down the Smart Phone
Kevin Woodward Securing mobile payments involves taming a many-headed beast of suppliers, developers, and manufacturers. Imagine creating a mobile-payment service using the latest and most advanced security features, and then realizing that with one download a consumer could sidestep all of that and incur a mobile-payment headache. It’s a very …
Read More »Making a Decent Profit Gets Tougher for Retail ATM Deployers
Non-bank ATM operators, which run an estimated 52% of the nation’s approximately 412,000 ATMs, are struggling to maintain profitability as revenues come under pressure and costs continue to rise, according to a recent study of U.S. ATM deployers by Tremont Capital Group Inc. and the ATM Industry Association. On the …
Read More »Not Content Targeting Financial Services, Phishers Widen Attacks to New Brands
Online fraudsters are attacking a much wider variety of brands, including grocery stores and Bitcoin exchanges, showing a growing level of sophistication in their efforts to gull unsuspecting customers out of their money, according to the latest quarterly report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group Inc., an 11-year-old organization made up …
Read More »Merchants That Opted out of the Big Interchange Settlement Will Get a Second Chance
Merchants that elected not to take a share of the $5.7 billion settlement to resolve a massive credit card interchange case against Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and some banks will be given a chance to opt back into a share of the damages under a plan being crafted by lawyers. …
Read More »Spurred by Fraud and Fear, Debit Card Issuers Cast Aside Their EMV Reservations
Nothing like a good data breach to serve as a kick in the pants. Thanks in part to Target Corp.’s breach that compromised 40 million payment cards, debit card issuers are committing themselves to the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card standard to a much greater extent than they did a year …
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