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Merchant Warehouse Inc. has bought gift and loyalty provider Opticard and has plans to offer its services as part of bundled transaction services to merchants. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Opticard, which will continue to operate independently, sells gift and loyalty card services to small businesses. Merchants can use Opticard programs to …
Read More »Burger King Has Its Way With a New Mobile-Payments and Loyalty App
It may perennially trail McDonald’s Corp. among the leading U.S. hamburger chains, but Burger King Worldwide Inc. is on track to take the lead in mobile payments. Miami-based Burger King this week said it plans to roll out a smart phone app offering mobile payments and digital-coupons beginning in April. …
Read More »NACHA’s Latest Gambit for Faster Payments Stirs Cautious Optimism Mixed with Wariness
A fresh proposal to introduce a same-day settlement capability for the automated clearing house network is encountering cautious optimism mixed with a healthy dose of skepticism among expert observers. But NACHA officials clearly see the new proposal not only as a blueprint for speedier payments but also as a first …
Read More »Smucker’s Hacked E-Commerce Site To Reopen Soon; Sally Beauty Confirms Breach
The J.M. Smucker Co.’s online store is expected to reopen next week, nearly a month after the jam-and-jelly producer closed it after discovering that hackers had broken into its computer system and stolen payment card data and other personal information on up to 23,000 customers. In other data-security news, beauty …
Read More »Fiserv’s Accel Debit Network Now Supports Visa’s Common AID in Addition to MasterCard’s
Hard on the heels of its announcement last week that it will support MasterCard Inc.’s so-called common application identifier (AID) on chip debit cards, processor Fiserv Inc. followed up on Monday by disclosing that its Accel network also will support Visa Inc.’s AID. The news means that Accel is the …
Read More »Mobile POS Card Reader Makers Prep for the U.S. EMV Switch
With as many as 5 million mobile point-of-sale readers in circulation in the United States, mobile POS companies will have their hands full following the liability shift set for October 2015 when the nation’s payment card networks step up the migration to the Europay-MasterCard-Visa smart card scheme. Designed to …
Read More »How Merchants’ Quest for More Customer Loyalty Could Give New Life to Decoupled Debit
Might decoupled debit rise again? It very well could, according to some payments experts, and the light on the hill is the decoupled debit card issued by the battered and bruised discount retailer Target Corp. For nearly three months, Target has weathered a storm of bad publicity after confirming a …
Read More »Eye on Security: Issuer Response to Target Hack; A Rough Ride for Debit Cards in Chicago Cabs
A recent study by First Annapolis Consulting Inc. found that 22 of the nation’s 30 largest debit card issuers are actively replacing cards in the wake of retailer Target Corp.’s massive data breach. Meanwhile, a suburban Chicago bank warned customers not to use their debit cards in Chicago taxicabs and …
Read More »Mobile-Payments Provider for Parking Looks to Serve Offers for Nearby Businesses to Users
PayByPhone Technologies Inc., which runs mobile-payment programs for parking in half a dozen U.S. cities, is looking for ways to serve relevant offers to users of its system, a top executive with the company said Thursday. n The offers, for example, could include discounts at stores or restaurants near where …
Read More »First Data’s Star Network Casts Its Lot With Visa’s Identifier for Chip-Card Transaction Routing
Payment processor First Data Corp.’s Star electronic funds transfer network on Wednesday said it would license Visa Inc.’s so-called common application identifier (AID) that will facilitate chip-based debit card transactions compliant with the transaction-routing requirements of the Durbin Amendment in 2010’s Dodd-Frank Act. The agreement with Visa could give Star, …
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