A new service that integrates Apple Inc.’s Touch ID and Samsung’s fingerprint-recognition technology into a single mobile-payments app says it can help boost conversion, and ease shopping-cart abandonment, for mobile-commerce retailers. Santa Ana, Calif.-based Sekur Me Inc. uses the biometric sensors in Apple and Samsung smart phones to authenticate the …

By Jim Daly JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported Tuesday that 60,000 merchants use its in-house ChaseNet merchant-processing venture and as of January they were generating annualized charge volume of $16 billion. Merchants in the venture include United Airlines, the Marriott hotel chain, DirecTV, 1-800 Flowers, Groupon, Zillow, and Barnes & …

Many merchant-services executives have complained for years about so-called margin compression, a relentless loss of profitability driven by competition on price per transaction. But now two researchers argue acquirer profitability, far from collapsing, is actually much better than widely thought. “There has been a lot of talk about margin compression, …

By Digital Transactions News Staff Gemalto NV, one of the largest manufacturers of SIM cards for mobile phones and a key vendor for U.S. payment card producers as the nation converts to the EMV chip card standard, suddenly has found itself in the middle of a spy scandal involving the …

When Google Inc. launched its Google Wallet mobile-payments service nearly four years ago, it quickly ran into a formidable obstacle: three major mobile carriers, including two of the nation’s largest, wouldn’t let Google Wallet work on their phones. Now Google has finally found a solution, and it’s one that could …

There’s a simple reason why Samsung Electronics America Inc. bought LoopPay Inc.: It wants a “truly digital wallet.” That’s the reason given by David Eun, Samsung executive vice president and head of the mega-corporation’s investment unit, Samsung Global Innovation Center. “We have a shared vision to inspire users to transition …

Visa Inc. on Thursday said it is expanding the availability of its Visa Checkout online and mobile wallet to 13 more nations beyond the three original ones. Starting today, consumers in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, and China can use Visa Checkout to pay for purchases on …

By Jim Daly and John Stewart Continuing its recent string of setbacks, American Express Co. Thursday lost a crucial federal court fight in which it defended policies banning merchants from steering AmEx cardholders to cheaper forms of payment. The U.S. Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general challenged the …

By Jim Daly The U.S. Department of Justice and a merchant group focused on payment card acceptance costs Thursday afternoon hailed a federal district judge’s ruling striking down American Express Co.’s rules banning its merchants from steering AmEx cardholders to lower-cost forms of payment. Earlier in the day, New York …

Merchants using Leaf, a tablet-based point-of-sale system that its owner Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is winding down, will continue to be supported, but there will be no further sales of the system, Leaf president Sarah McCrary tells Digital Transactions News. The expense and complication of supporting hardware to accept chip …