For more than 20 years the Electronic Transactions Association’s conference has been known as the “ETA Annual Meeting & Expo.” But next spring the merchant-acquiring industry’s biggest gathering will be known as “Transact 14: Powered by ETA.” The rebranding around the “Transact” name, according to ETA chief executive Jason Oxman, …

A new point-of-sale card-acceptance app expected to be available in early 2014 will use pattern-recognition technology to capture a payment card number, potentially speeding up an in-store transaction and eliminating the need for a card reader. n Cartwheel Register eschews a card reader that plugs into the audio jack in …

Linda Punch The Federal Trade Commission wants to outright ban four payment methods used by legitimate telemarketers and fraudsters alike. That would shut off a significant source of transactions for at least some merchant processors. Alternative payment methods such as remotely created checks have become increasingly popular over the past …

Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip cards will come to the U.S., but probably not before the payment card networks postpone current deadlines and offer strong incentives for merchants that might include interchange relief and dumping the signature as a cardholder- verification method, according to a new research report from Celent LLC. Card …

It’s been one bump after another for the Chicago Transit Authority’s new Ventra fare-payment system that includes a contactless prepaid MasterCard Inc. card. The latest came today when the chairman of a Chicago-area transportation oversight board dubbed Ventra’s rollout a “systemic failure” and called for an audit of the fare …

Some dragons are harder to slay than others, and a few are fire-breathing. Here’s our annual look at the industry’s fiercest beasts, this time ranging from the endless war over interchange to eager-beaver regulators to the woes of digital currency. By John Stewart and Jim Daly If payments were easy, …

  USConnect, a food-service network, has ordered 50,000 ePort vending-machine payment devices from USA Technologies Inc., making it the largest single order ever, says Malvern, Pa.-based USA Technologies. EPort devices enable vending machines to accept credit and debit cards and contactless payments. USConnect will supply the devices to its network …

Leading payment card processor First Data Corp. on Tuesday announced it had bought Perka Inc., a startup that provides smart-phone-based loyalty programs for merchants. The Perka buy comes just a few weeks after First Data unveiled a tablet-based point-of-sale system from Clover Network Inc., another startup that it quietly bought …

By Jim Daly A summer poll of payments executives found that less than a third think Bitcoin and other so-called math-based virtual currencies will greatly change how money is moved within 10 years. But majorities, some strong, also think that Bitcoin will spur responses from PayPal Inc., the big wire-transfer …

By Jim Daly The deep divide within debit networks about bringing Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip cards to the United States was on full display Monday at a conference in which a Visa Inc. executive hinted that Visa might be open to a delay in a major EMV deadline. But an executive …