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The coming of Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip cards along with pressures on interchange and surcharge revenues are the top three concerns of U.S. ATM independent sales organizations and other retail deployers, according to survey results from the ATM Industry Association. The trade group’s annual survey of what’s on its members’ minds …
Read More »The Feds Give a Cautious OK to Financial Services for Legal Marijuana Sellers
The gradual lowering of barriers that have kept legal marijuana merchants outside of the financial mainstream gained momentum Friday in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) and the U.S. Department of Justice announced new guidelines that signal federal approval for banks to serve legal marijuana …
Read More »Durbin Wants To Know How Well His Debit Card Fraud-Prevention Adjustment Is Working
In the wake of recent data breaches at Target Corp. and other retailers, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, author of a famous amendment that regulates debit card interchange, and an ally want to know how well a provision in the amendment that gives a debit card issuer an extra penny in …
Read More »AmEx Ramps Up Effort To Sign Small Merchants With Its OptBlue Program
American Express Co. is stepping up its campaign to add small merchants to its acceptance base with a program called OptBlue that gives partner merchant acquirers a greater role than they had with an older program called OnePoint. AmEx started testing OptBlue late last year and revealed details about it …
Read More »Apple Bans Another Bitcoin Wallet, Stirring Protests But Perhaps Boosting Its Own Wallet
Apple Inc. removed from its vast mobile-applications market called the App Store the Blockchain mobile wallet for accessing the Bitcoin virtual currency, an action Blockchain claims will leave no native Bitcoin options for users of Apple’s iOS mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad. Apple’s move quickly stirred protests …
Read More »Target Passed a PCI Inspection Before Breach; Will Spend $100 Million on Chip Card Effort
Target Corp. said on Tuesday that it passed its latest Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) inspection a mere three months before confirming in December that a data breach compromised 40 million customers’ payment card numbers. Target also said it is fast-tracking its efforts to roll out chip card acceptance …
Read More »Capitol Hill Hearings Will Shine the Spotlight on Payment-Card Security Lapses
Merchants and financial institutions will find their information-protection practices under intense scrutiny this week in Washington, where no fewer than four Senate and House of Representatives hearings are scheduled in the wake of payment card data breaches at Target Corp., Neiman Marcus Group and other merchants. The sessions kick off …
Read More »Visa Sticks to EMV Deadline; CEO Decries Data-Breach Blame Game and ‘Misinformation’
Visa Inc. chief executive Charles Scharf on Thursday quelled rumors that the payment network might change its October 2015 liability-shift deadline for Europay-MasterCard-Visa chip card transactions. Scharf also decried what he called “misinformation” and “confusion” about card security following December’s news of Target Corp.’s huge payment card data breach and …
Read More »Mitek Pictures Itself as a New Tech Provider in Mobile Biller-Direct Payments
Mobile-imaging software developer Mitek Systems Inc. on Wednesday announced its Mobile Photo Payments application that enables large billers to receive bill payments from consumers using their mobile devices. The service complements San Diego-based Mitek’s existing Mobile Photo Bill Pay product, which rolled out last year and is distributed mainly through …
Read More »Michaels Reports ‘Potential Issue’ Involving Apparent Payment Card Data Breach
Seemingly confirming predictions from law enforcement and data-security executives in private industry that more data breaches beyond the recent ones at Target Corp. and Neiman Marcus Group are coming, arts-and-crafts retailer Michaels Stores on Saturday warned that “we may have experienced a data-security attack.” Plano, Texas-based Michaels alerted consumers to …
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