News

June, 2016

• 29 June

  Wirecard Comes to the U.S. As Citigroup Retreats From Prepaid Cards

  Citigroup Inc. on Wednesday announced it has struck a definitive agreement to sell its institutional Prepaid Card Services unit to Munich, Germany-based Wirecard AG. The deal is significant in that it will give Europe’s second-largest payment processor a toehold in the U.S., and it marks the retreat by another big …
• 29 June

  Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Finds Malware and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • Noodles & Co. reported that malware led to the compromise of an undisclosed number of customers’ credit and debit cards between Jan. 31 and June 2 at 407 locations in 27 states and the District of Columbia representing 80% of its 507 total stores; the fast-casual restaurant chain began …
• 29 June

  Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Finds Malware and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • Noodles & Co. reported that malware led to the compromise of an undisclosed number of customers’ credit and debit cards between Jan. 31 and June 2 at 407 locations in 27 states and the District of Columbia representing 80% of its 507 total stores; the fast-casual restaurant chain began …
• 28 June

  Wells Fargo Plans August Expansion of Real-Time Send Capability for P2P Payments

  Four years after launching a peer-to-peer payments capability using the clearXchange network, Wells Fargo & Co. is enabling a real-time function for its service. Announced Monday, the enhancement enables Wells customers to send and receive real-time payments with no fee from and to customers of any bank that participates in …
• 28 June

  Supreme Court Agrees to Appeal in ATM Lawsuit and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • Grocery store giant The Kroger Co. filed a federal lawsuit against Visa Inc. accusing the card network of trying to force it to allow customers to verify EMV debit card purchases with signatures, and thereby route transactions to the Visa network, rather than with PINs as Kroger prefers, The …
• 28 June

  After Deciding “To Capitulate” to Visa, Kroger Sues the Network Over EMV Transaction Routing

  The Kroger Co. on Monday sued Visa Inc. over the network’s alleged efforts to force the nation’s leading grocery-store chain to route EMV chip debit card transactions over Visa’s network by having customers sign for purchases rather than enter PINs. Kroger, the largest retailer after Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to …
• 28 June

  SWIFT Attracts 73 Banks Worldwide for Cross-Border Payments Initiative As Pilot Unfolds

  The U.S. rollout of EMV is just one chapter—albeit a major one—in an unfolding international payments story, but another one is taking the stage that could have important implications both for faster payments and cross-border transactions. SWIFT, the Belgium-based international financial-messaging organization, announced on Tuesday that 73 financial institutions worldwide …
• 27 June

  Payments Stocks Flattened Again as Brexit Downdraft Grows

  A second day of market turmoil in the wake of the United Kingdom’s “Brexit” vote to leave the European Union once again took a big bite out of stocks of U.S.-based payments companies with large operations in the U.K. and Europe. For example, on a day when the major market indexes …
• 27 June

  North American Bancard EMV Tip Adjust and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • Prepaid card provider Green Dot Corp. appointed William I. Jacobs, who joined its board of directors in April, as board chairman. The chairman spot had been held by CEO Steve Streit, but the company, which recently had a proxy fight, is separating the roles. Jacobs currently is chairman of …
• 27 June

  Swifter EMV Certification Will Aid Chip Card Transition—And Terminal Makers

  

  Getting point-of-sale terminals through the EMV-certification process should become a bit quicker thanks to the card brands’ efforts to “streamline” the testing process. That should bode well for POS terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc., says Vin D’Agostino, executive vice president of VeriFone Services. MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. separately announced programs that …