Peter Lucas The card networks’ gambit to rapidly accelerate EMV terminal rollout by waiving PCI compliance reporting for merchants is falling short. Sometimes what looks to be a great deal is not all it’s cracked up to be. Offers by the payment card networks to accelerate the U.S. deployment of …

Lauri Giesen Will PIN debit for online transactions ever take off? Some backers are hopeful for this year, but others argue the Durbin Amendment and alternative technologies—like mobile payments—could make PIN debit irrelevant for e-commerce.Time was, the case for online retailers to accept debit card transactions secured with a PIN …

The gift card, the bedrock of the prepaid card world, is increasingly taking on a digital form, cutting costs for merchants and adding to convenience for mobile-phone-wielding customers. But hold the obituaries for plastic. By Lauri Giesen One of the fastest-growing payment cards isn’t really a plastic card at all. …

Karen Epper Hoffman Mobile remote deposit capture and related services are creating a wealth of opportunities for imaging companies. What is market leader Mitek Systems doing to defend its position, and what do its challengers have cooking? Will success change mobile remote deposit capture? Services that allow consumers and businesses …

The good news for prepaid card program manager Green Dot Corp. in the fourth quarter: purchase volumes, revenues, and active cards all increased. The bad news: American Express Co.’s new Bluebird prepaid card now being sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s U.S. stores is taking some business from Green Dot’s own …

  Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, will go down as one of the payments industry’s more notable days of the deal. First, payments-software developer ACI Worldwide Inc. announced plans to buy Online Resources Corp. in a deal that values the electronic bill-payment and presentment technology provider at $263 million. Then the big processor …

  The effort to bring near-real-time person-to-person payments to the customers of smaller financial institutions took another step on Wednesday with the announcement the Sprig digital-wallet service from Co-Op Financial Services, a processor and network operator that links some 3,000 credit unions. The new service, available for both mobile devices …

First Data Corp. late on Monday named Ed Labry, president of the big processor’s North American unit, as interim chief executive officer to  replace current chief executive Jonathan J. Judge, who is retiring early for health reasons. The announcement came less than a day before First Data announced mixed fourth-quarter …

The surcharging provisions of the credit card interchange settlement announced last July will take effect on Sunday, but observers expect few merchants will take advantage of their new-found freedom to add a surcharge to Visa and MasterCard credit card sales. “I know of nobody” who plans to surcharge, says Mitch …

A sweeping review by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City of the Durbin Amendment’s effects warns that competition could be harmed if more payment card networks adopt fixed-pricing plans as they compete for merchant business in the newly regulated debit card environment. The new report is the first of …