The new year will be ringing in with questions about Visa’s plan to improve the data-security work that third parties do on small merchants’ point-of-sale systems. What happens when a payment-security requirement isn’t enforced and is largely ignored by vast numbers of the industry participants it covers? We’re about to …

If you’re not, and you’re a retailer with physical stores, you should be. But there’s a way to fight back. Proprietary mobile apps show the way. Amazon.com Inc. is on a tear. Reports show the online retailer accounted for 24 cents of every $1 in retail sales growth in 2015, …

Our cover story this month describes the security issues surrounding the so-called Internet of Things. That’s the increasingly intricate network of devices using the Internet to control everything from garage doors to thermostat settings. In many cases, payments flow over this IoT, and therein lies the problem. As our story …

Fintech—Patti Hewitt, a.k.a. Paymentgal, observes that financial institutions need to reinvent the retail account to offer more than just the simple liquidity they’ve provided “for centuries.” She sees the bank-customer relationship itself as up for grabs. The reason is the rise of fintech, well-funded non-bank financial-services startups with deep technology …

Retailers can expect a bump up in the dollars consumers load on closed-loop gift cards this holiday season as a festive spirit takes hold and more merchants favor the cards over holiday discounts, according to a forecast released last month by payments consultancy Mercator Advisory Group. “Retailers are expecting that …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Stripe Inc.’s latest funding round, in which the privately held San Francisco-based company nearly doubled its valuation to $9.2 billion, shows what startups can do if they’re innovating in the right sector of payments, experts say. Just six years old, Stripe provides tools for payments online …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews U.S. shoppers flooded into stores and online this past weekend—Macy’s Web site crashed on Black Friday from the crush—to find holiday gift deals, with many putting their chip cards to use, though e-commerce spending, where the fraud-prevention feature of the chip is immaterial, continues to increase. In …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Can First Data Corp. shake its reputation as the aircraft carrier of the payments industry, a behemoth processor that is anything but nimble? It can, according to a new report from a securities firm. “First Data becoming increasingly competitive,” says the headline in the report by Chicago-based …

Sports and entertainment venue operator The Madison Square Garden Co. (MSG) on Tuesday disclosed a nearly year-long breach of payment card information involving customers who bought concessions at five of its venerable properties. And a new study from Federal Reserve researchers makes six recommendations for improving mobile-payments security, one of …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Vending payments specialist USA Technologies Inc. says promoting Apple Pay at the point of sale produced a 36.5% increase in overall sales and a 55.5% increase in revenue from contactless purchases. Malvern, Pa.-based