News

August, 2015

• 24 August

  Payments Companies Gashed in Bloody Wall Street Rout

  Publicly traded payments companies fared slightly worse than the major market indexes Monday in a continuation of a Wall Street selloff triggered by investor worries about China’s economic situation, overvaluation of securities, and the future of U.S. interest rates. Fifty companies tracked by Digital Transactions News fell 4.03% from Friday’s …
• 21 August

  Peril of New Chargebacks Could Bring EMV Into Focus for Unaware Merchants

  A significant chunk—44%—of small-business owners have no knowledge of the EMV liability shift coming Oct. 1. That finding from “Small Business EMV Readiness,” a report released by Javelin Strategy & Research this week, suggests that many might be in for a shock when their merchant-processing statements arrive in November and …
• 21 August

  Illinois Drops Money-Transmitter Licensure Case Against Square

  While many payments firms have complained about the expensive and time-consuming process of getting state money-transmitter licenses, and, more recently, of potentially needing licenses to operate virtual currencies, the regulatory pendulum occasionally swings the other way. Late last month, Illinois quietly dropped a 2013 cease-and-desist order against merchant processor Square …
• 21 August

  In This High-Stakes Poker Game, Verizon Holds More Cards Than Samsung

  By John Stewart Why won’t Verizon Wireless make nice with Samsung Pay? With the U.S. debut of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s mobile-payments service just a few days away—and a national launch of Samsung Pay due Sept. 28—all the major mobile network operators have signed on to support the service with …
• 20 August

  Lying in Wait, Cyber Thieves Lick Their Chops in Anticipation of EMV Shift

  The transition to an EMV-based payment card system in the United States could spur a long and sophisticated series of criminal attacks designed to separate consumers and banks from their funds. That’s one possible consequence, says Michael Bruemmer, vice president at Experian Information Solutions Inc.’s Data Breach Resolution group. “Cyber …
• 20 August

  Research Casts Doubt on Merchant And Consumer Savings From Durbin Debit Cap

  By John Stewart Evidence emerged this week that the Durbin Amendment may not be cutting debit card acceptance costs for merchants as effectively as its backers intended. Nor has it prompted many merchants to pass on their savings to consumers, according to a paper published in Economic Quarterly, a publication …
• 19 August

  AmEx Adds Rewards to Its Serve Prepaid Card, But Will Users Find It Worth the Price?

  American Express Co. is offering new rewards and benefits for using one of its prepaid cards, but at a cost. The card brand and acquirer on Wednesday added a rewards program to its Serve card under the “Serve Cash Back” moniker. Serve Cash Back users, who pay $5.95 per month …
• 19 August

  Eye on Security: Visa-Target Settlement; Ashley Madison Hackers Post Payment Data

  Visa Inc. has struck a settlement with Target Corp. that would reimburse Visa’s credit and debit card issuers up to $67 million for their expenses related to Target’s massive data breach in late 2013. Meanwhile, hackers who stole data from the Ashley Madison Web site have posted seven years of …
• 18 August

  Samsung Pay’s Mag-Stripe Emulation Advantage Might Be Short-Lived

  The debut of Samsung Pay in the United States is just a month away, but the ongoing migration of U.S. credit and debit cards to the EMV chip standard may already be eroding the nascent mobile-payment service’s unique advantage. Samsung Pay uses near-field communication (NFC) and, uniquely, a radio-frequency version …
• 18 August

  How the Spread of Digital Payments Is Driving Online Links for Remote Devices

  The increasing penetration of digital payments worldwide is helping drive conversion of point-of-sale terminals, vending machines, and parking meters from standalone devices to connected machines, according to a report released Tuesday by Berg Insight, a Gothenberg, Sweden-based research firm that follows the wireless market. Worldwide, Berg forecasts the number of …