Hypercom Corp. reports it is starting to see interest building in a service that allows merchants to inject new encryption keys in their point-of-sale terminals through network connections, eliminating the need to visit stores or send the devices out to have the job done. “It's been a pretty substantial effort” …

The Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) is a favorite punching bag of merchants, but executives from Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. defended the set of security rules before an audience of independent sales organizations as the best tool available for keeping cardholder information safe from computer hackers. They also …

In an unprecedented effort to thwart data breaches, the three leading vendors of payment card terminals on Wednesday put aside their normally fierce rivalries to announce creation of a non-profit industry group to implement common security standards and improve knowledge about security issues. “The self interest aligns with the public …

First Atlantic Commerce this week issued a strongly worded statement distancing itself from an investigation launched by the U.S. Department of Justice of offshore transactions. First Data Corp. last week said it was reviewing documents Justice filed in federal court seeking information on First Data merchants that sell or provide …

Contactless payments took another incremental step recently when USA Technologies Inc. struck an agreement with Visa Inc. under which Visa will subsidize the deployment of up to 4,000 of USA Technologies' card-accepting devices for vending machines. The agreement, potentially worth $800,000, is significant because it is the first between Visa …

Inexorable forces are reducing the ranks of payments processors and electronic bill-payment providers, as the planned buy-out of Metavante Corp. by Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) shows. Remaining ones such Online Resources Corp. are vulnerable to Wall Street pressure, as a proxy fight in progress shows. But some companies …

A Federal Reserve Bank proposal to speed up settlement times for certain automated clearing house transactions has provoked at least one electronic-payments executive to offer an alternative proposal that he says will accelerate clearing times without the threat to banks he sees in the Fed's idea. Danne Buchanan, chief executive …

The electronic-commerce payments market remains highly competitive despite the recession, and the online niche payment systems are trying to adapt their game plans to the fluid conditions. “The economy is helping us on the consumer side and the merchant side,” says Sergio Pinon, chief executive of eLayaway LLC, an online …

The market for decoupled debit cards, which has been eerily silent for about a year, may soon be making waves again. An executive with Tempo Payments Inc., a non-bank processor with the only network-branded product on the market currently, said this week the company plans to launch a new product …

RideCharge Inc., a software vendor specializing in the taxicab market, is getting more mileage on its booking and payment application as the popularity of mobile phones grows. The Alexandria, Va.-based firm most recently added the largest cab company in Boston, the 200-plus vehicle fleet of Boston Metro Cab, to its …