Competitive Strategies

While the payments business is caught up these days in working out strategies for mobile apps and social media, it turns out these aren’t the cutting-edge technologies they once were. Instead, fields like virtual reality, machine learning, and natural language are winning the spotlight. That’s according to a study that …

Consumers may shop in stores more than they do online, but for most—93%—the research into these purchases is taking place online, finds a survey released Tuesday by Revel Systems, an iPad-based point-of-sale system provider. More consumers, 86%, shopping in person at least twice in the month proceeding the July survey …

• Boosted by its November 2015 acquisition of software developer SunGard, processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) reported third-quarter revenues of $2.31 billion, up 46.2% from a year earlier. Revenues grew 3.8% on an organic basis. • Co-Op Financial Services said it will provide its online bill-payment application to …

Kohl’s Corp. joins the ranks of retailers with their own mobile-wallet services with the launch last month of Kohl’s Pay. Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based Kohl’s said the barcode mobile-payment service exclusively uses the private-label Kohl’s Charge card as the payment mechanism in more than 1,100 Kohl’s stores. To use Kohl’s Pay, …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The new version of the 3-D Secure online-authentication technology is better for merchants and consumers and thus likely to get more adoption than the old version, according to security experts. EMVCo, the chip card standards body owned by the world’s six leading payment card networks, released 3-D …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Alphabet Inc.’s Android Pay mobile wallet made some headlines recently with the company’s announcement that the app would be available to Masterpass and Visa Checkout users for Softcard mobile-payments venture managed by leading telecom companies. Smart Tap is available now in all U.S. Walgreen’s stores as …

• RYDE Technologies Inc. launched an overhauled version of its ride-hailing app RYDE, first launched last year to compete with Uber and Lyft. As with other such apps, RYDE processes payments in the background against a stored card, summons taxicabs and black cars rather than private vehicles. • The Bancorp Inc., …

By Jim Daly@DTPayment News Most of the chatter about how the debit card market has changed in the five years since the Durbin Amendment took effect centers on what market leader Visa Inc. is doing, or how the electronic funds transfer networks are maneuvering to stay alive and grow. But …

• Early Warning Services LLC, a fraud-management company, announced an alliance with NuData Security that enables Early Warning to use behavioral analytics and risk assessment as part of its authentication platform. • Money-transfer revenue for MoneyGram International totaled $339.6 million for the third quarter, up 5% on a constant-currency basis …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The ride-sharing service Uber is strongly associated with mobile apps, not with plastic. But prepaid card providers such as Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. are finding new opportunities in the so-called sharing economy exemplified by Uber, in which drivers using their own vehicles offer taxi-like services to riders. …