The PCI Security Standards Council on Thursday gave a sneak peek at planned changes in the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI. While a Council document outlines 15 planned changes, the proposals are “relatively minor,” according to a news release. “The No. 1 thing again is greater clarity on …

With interchange and overdraft-fee revenues under withering political and regulatory attack, debit card issuers can point to one bright spot in their quest for growth—instance issuance of cards in bank and credit-union branches. Some 35% of financial institutions offered the service in 2009, up from 28% in 2008, according to …

In a move that could have a bottom-line impact for an untold number of independent sales organizations, First Data Corp. is sending letters to client ISOs notifying them they owe fees to the Atlanta-based processing giant to compensate for shortfalls in processing volumes. While it’s not clear how many such …

With application developers rushing to bring apps to market for Apple Inc.’s immensely popular iPad tablet computer, payment service provider Square Inc. is predicting the iPad will become a game changer in wireless payments, and says that it will aggressively pursue developing iPad applications that enrich the transaction experience. The …

After rolling out its flagship mobile remote deposit software product in mid-2009, Mitek Systems Inc. is harvesting a bit of a profit. The company last week reported net income of $7,000 for its fiscal 2010 second quarter ended March 31. That’s close to break even, but much better than the …

End-to-end encryption of payment card data is all the rage among vendors to the merchant-acquiring industry, but vendors themselves believe it will take a long time for merchants to begin using their new technology. Asked how long they believe it will take for the majority of U.S. card-accepting merchants to …

In a move calculated to expand its business in e-commerce and mobile transactions, Visa Inc. on Wednesday said it will buy CyberSource Corp., an online gateway and merchant acquirer, for $2 billion in cash. The deal, which is expected to close by Sept. 30, brings together the world's largest payment …

Banking-services provider Fiserv Inc. announced on Monday a free widget that will let banks readily create a simplified bill-payment function on the so-called landing page of their online-banking sites. The widget, which starting some time in the second quarter will also enable person-to-person payments, is a piece of code that …

Remote deposit capture by mobile phone, a recent technology still considered experimental by many bankers, has proven itself in deployments so far, a banking researcher said on Monday. “The technology is demonstrably ready for broad adoption,” Robert Meara, a senior analyst at Celent LLC, told attendees at a banking conference. …

The number of identity-fraud victims increased by 12% last year to 11.1 million from 9.9 million in 2008 and was 37% higher than in 2007, and the estimated amount of fraud hit $54 billion, the highest since 2006. That's according to Javelin Strategy & Research's 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report. …