News

April, 2015

• 23 April

  New Costs Imposed on Banks by Same-Day ACH Could Reshape Pricing Approach

  By John Stewart Merchants that use the automated clearing house network to accept transactions may not be happy about a new fee expected to be part of a proposed same-day settlement plan, but the plan will impose significant new costs on financial institutions as well. And those costs could reshape …
• 23 April

  With Its Spin-off Looming, PayPal Reports Strong Growth in Mobile, Overall

  By John Stewart Ahead of an expected separation later this year from its long-time parent eBay Inc., PayPal Inc. on Wednesday reported strong growth in both its overall business and in the burgeoning mobile-payments market. Payments volume for the San Jose, Calif.-based processor climbed 24% in the first quarter compared …
• 23 April

  Alternative Services, Mobile Apps To Help the Feds Traverse the ‘Last Mile’ in Payments

  By Jim Daly Tests of alternative payments and smart-phone apps are in the cards for the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The Bureau has excised more than 90% of the paper from its payments processes but still must traverse a difficult “last mile” to become a nearly …
• 21 April

  Costco Gets a Lift by Adding Card Acceptance to Food Courts

  By Jim Daly Warehouse retailer Costco Wholesale Corp. has been in the news recently because it is  replacing American Express Co. with Visa Inc. and Citigroup Inc. as its major-brand payment card partners. But a little-noticed change in its U.S. stores’ food courts shows what can happen when a retailer adds …
• 21 April

  How New York Transformed from an 18th-Century Laggard Into a Payments Leader

  It isn’t often that a municipality is recognized for its work in the payments space. But that’s what happened Tuesday when NACHA, governing body of the automated clearing house network, gave a New York City department its George Mitchell Payments System Excellence Award for transforming the city’s decentralized, inefficient and …
• 21 April

  Confluence of Trends Creating a “Golden Age” for Merchant Portfolios?

  The allure of recurring revenue combined with low interest rates and investors prospecting for new assets are contributing to a potentially prosperous time for sellers of merchant portfolios. That’s the assessment from a presentation Tuesday at the Southeast Acquirers Association annual conference in New Orleans. Also, the Electronic Transactions Association …
• 20 April

  Non-Bank Rivals, Lack of Account Coverage Haunt Growing Real-Time Trend

  A panel of two bankers and a banking-services provider gave an upbeat appraisal Monday of industry moves toward real-time payments, but indicated financial institutions still have a long way to go to serve customer demand and meet competitive thrusts from non-bank players. “We’ve got more work to do,” said Roy …
• 19 April

  Will Increasing Regulation of the Acquiring Industry Abroad Affect the U.S. Market?

  By Jim Daly The Canadian government’s move last week to strengthen its Code of Conduct for the payment card industry and the European Union’s approval in March of rock-bottom interchange rates for credit and debit cards has observers wondering if more regulation is in store for the U.S. merchant-acquiring industry. …
• 17 April

  Retailers Eye EMV as a Near-Term Reason for POS System Upgrades

  Retailers will take their time upgrading their point-of-sale systems for compatibility with the EMV chip card standards, finds EKN Research’s “2015 Retail Point-of-Sale Blueprint” report. Only a minority of retailers—mostly the largest ones—will be ready by Oct. 1, though within two years 70% of them will be ready for the …
• 17 April

  Despite Its Woes, AmEx Manages To Report Respectable First-Quarter Financials

  By Jim Daly Coming off a winter of discontent, American Express Co. late Thursday reported some respectable financial results for the first quarter. The loss of its relationships with Costco Wholesale Corp. in Canada, however, affected charge volumes, a prelude to the loss of Costco as a merchant acceptor and …