Competitive Strategies

By Jim Daly Wire-transfer market leader The Western Union Co. issued a brief statement early Wednesday afternoon saying reports that it is in early talks to buy rival MoneyGram International Inc. “are not accurate.” The statement appeared to quickly deflate the two companies’ stock prices, especially MoneyGram’s, which had soared …

Independent sales organization Total Merchant Services Inc. hopes a newly altered agent-compensation plan will result in more merchants using EMV-compatible point-of-sale terminals. The U.S. payment card industry is migrating to EMV chip cards, requiring that merchants use compatible terminals. As a way to motivate its sales agents and get more …

The message about EMV and its payment-processing benefits is not sinking in with smaller merchants. That’s the assessment from Heartland Payment Systems Inc.’s chief executive Robert O. Carr, who says Heartland is responding by offering all-in-one security technology that includes but goes beyond EMV. “Well, resonating would be an overstatement,” …

Improving online conversion rates, especially for mobile commerce, depends on providing many options for faster checkout experiences. That’s the assertion of the newly released “Mobile Commerce Forecast 2015-2018” from Mark Beccue Consulting Inc. Beccue predicts that global mobile-commerce payment volume will grow from $187.5 billion in 2014 to $744 billion …

Brian V. Mooney, who on Tuesday took over as interim chief executive of the retailer-controlled Merchant Customer Exchange LLC payments consortium, brings strengths to the organization that could prove valuable when MCX at last launches its long-awaited CurrentC mobile-payments system, sources tell Digital Transactions News. And, by some accounts, he …

Transaction volumes, revenues and profits all headed up smartly for MasterCard Inc. in the first quarter. But MasterCard on Wednesday also reported laying out nearly $900 million in rebates and incentives during the quarter to build future volume in an increasingly competitive global card marketplace. In the United States, total …

MasterCard Inc. announced Monday it is spending $600 million to buy Applied Predictive Technologies Inc., an Arlington, Va.-based company that provides analytics services to retailers, financial institutions, and other companies. The deal, expected to close in the second quarter, provides MasterCard with yet another service for merchants. “Merchants, like financial …

By Jim Daly Grizzled veterans of the payments industry may not have warm and fuzzy feelings for card networks, but the view can be different from consumers’ eyes. In its 27th annual study of brands, a newly released Harris Poll EquiTrend report ranked Visa Inc. as the No. 1 payment …

When it comes to Apple Inc.’s popular Apple Pay mobile-payment service, some players might figure it’s better to be late than never to participate at all. Issuer Discover Financial Services says consumers will be able to use Discover credit and debit cards with Apple Pay beginning this fall. Apple Pay …

A mobile wallet that uses the automated clearing house network to provide merchants with low acceptance costs is in tests with Team One Credit Union in Saginaw, Mich. MShift Inc., of Newark, Calif., is the developer of the mobile wallet it calls AnyWhereMobile. The app is integrated into Team One’s …