Contactless payments got a big boost Wednesday when the New York City area’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a $539.5 million contract with San Diego-based Cubic Transportation Systems to install a near-field communication-based payment system across all MTA transit and commuter-rail systems that includes open-loop payments. The deal means MTA riders …

With transaction laundering and false-front Web sites a growing problem for acquirers and independent sales organizations, technology vendors are beginning to respond. The latest example is Reno, Nev.-based Conformance Technologies LLC, which this week introduced more powerful tools to combat this growing fraud threat. Conformance has broadened the data elements …

Consumers may not realize it, but their mobile phone is a gateway for criminals to take over their bank accounts. In a fast-growing scam known as SIM swapping, criminals transfer the phone number associated with a consumer’s mobile phone to the SIM card embedded in a mobile phone in their …

Online merchants looking to increase their sales volume may want to consider offering instant financing. A study by Researchscape International reveals that 75% of respondents would be more likely to purchase from an online retailer that offers instant financing than one that does not. Another 28% said they would be …

Criminals purchasing stolen credit card data know they have a short window of opportunity to cash in before the accounts are shut down. Manually sifting through the hundreds, even thousands, of accounts bought in bulk can take more time than criminals have, which is why they are increasingly relying on …

Call centers remain a prime target for criminals looking to perpetrate fraud. In 2016, call-center fraud jumped 113% from 2015, according to Atlanta-based Pindrop Labs’ annual Call Center Fraud Report. Fraudulent activity took place with one in every 937 call-center calls, compared to one in 2,000 calls in 2015“With tools …

For all the talk by companies about how adopting electronic-payment technologies will streamline their accounts-payable processes, paper checks remain a staple of the business-to-business world. Businesses cut 13.1 billion checks a year, according to check printer Deluxe Corp. To join the advantages of electronic processing with those of paper checks, …

Restaurants have been slow to bite on EMV. To get adoption percolating, vendors are introducing methods that let customers add a tip after making a payment or pay with tabletop devices. Paying with EMV cards has been an adjustment for the average U.S. consumer. Cards are no longer swiped. They …

Recreational marijuana is now legal in a growing number of states, but cash remains the dominant payment method. Now, however, CanPay, a Littleton, Colo.-based payments provider, has developed a digital payment option that allows legal marijuana retailers to directly debit a consumer’s checking account from the point of sale. Typically, …

Call-center fraud is becoming a bigger problem for card issuers and financial institutions, increasing 45% globally since 2013, according to a new study from Atlanta-based Pindrop Labs. In 2013, an average of one in every 2,900 calls to a call center was fraudulent. This year, the rate is one fraudulent call …