News

May, 2015

• 26 May

  Payments Competition Will Likely Stunt Postal Service’s Search for New Revenue

  The U.S. Postal Service could generate as much as $1.1 billion in additional annual revenue after five years if it expanded its existing payment services. That’s according to a report from the USPS Office of Inspector General. But a hotly competitive market could dampen those prospects, experts say. Struggling with …
• 26 May

  Payments Executives See Mobile Wallets as Disruptive, but Also as Opportunities

  Carrying out business as usual is becoming harder to do as the payments business tries to adapt to new technologies. Asked at a recent San Francisco conference about what are the most disruptive trends in payments, 40% of industry professionals and alternative-finance executives polled cited the proliferation of mobile-wallet use …
• 22 May

  Bitcoin-Accepting Sellers Point to Multiple Benefits From Early Experience

  In a time when consumers are using multiple ways—smart phones, tablets, stores, and Web sites—to shop, they are also using new ways to pay. Now, some are choosing to shop using Bitcoin, the best-known virtual currency. Some merchants, like Reeds Jewelers, accept Bitcoin primarily because customers want to use the …
• 22 May

  MasterCard Issuers Reject Proposed Settlement for Target Data-Breach Losses

  A proposed $19 million settlement forged by MasterCard Inc. and retailer Target Corp. to compensate MasterCard issuers for fraud and other expenses they incurred after Target’s 2013 data breach failed to win approval from issuers representing 90% of eligible accounts that the so-called alternative-recovery plan needed by a May 20 …
• 21 May

  How Statement Scrutiny and Consumer Choices Could Yield Payment Savings

  Merchants, whether they sell online or in stores, consistently have one bugaboo about their payment-processing service: They want it to be cheaper. Online retailers, in particular, which pay higher card-not-present interchange rates, can use some simple practices to make a dent in these costs, as outlined this week in a …
• 21 May

  Virtual-Currency Observers Assess the Legacy of New York’s Departing Financial Boss

  Payments executives today are trying to assess the legacy of Benjamin Lawsky, New York State’s controversial top financial regulator who proposed the first regulations on virtual currencies. Lawsky, who became superintendent of the state’s Department of Financial Services in 2011, announced Wednesday that he plans to step down in June …
• 21 May

  PayPal Opens One Touch Checkout to Any User, With Or Without the PayPal App

  With the rapid spread of commerce on mobile devices, a key problem for merchants is getting customers to follow through with checkouts on tiny screens. PayPal Inc.’s answer to the problem is a solution that lets consumers check out with a single touch or click, and on Thursday it made …
• 20 May

  A Cut in a Controversial ACH Fee Pleases Big-Box Retailer Group, But a Bank Shrugs

  The reduced interbank fee of 5.2 cents contained in the same-day settlement plan approved this week by members of NACHA, the regulatory body for the automated clearing house network, is likely to go down better with major merchants than the 8.2-cent fee contained in the original proposal. “The level of …
• 19 May

  With MasterCard Send, MasterCard Promises P2P Payments ‘Within Seconds’

  MasterCard Inc. on Tuesday launched a person-to-person payment service in the United States that will allow debit card holders to send money to any other individual with a debit card account, regardless of the card brand and with the money arriving nearly instantaneously. The new service, dubbed MasterCard Send, also …
• 19 May

  With a Lower Interbank Fee, NACHA’s Same-Day Settlement Plan Wins Approval

  The voting members of automated clearing house network regulator NACHA have approved a plan to allow for same-day settlement of ACH transactions, NACHA announced Tuesday. The same-day proposal, which has been debated since its introduction early last year, received “overwhelming support” in the balloting, says a NACHA spokesperson. NACHA does …