Some 97% of Visa Inc.’s total U.S. payment volume stemmed from EMV chip cards in March, according to the card network’s latest periodic report on EMV’s progress in the United States. EMV volume totaled $70.7 billion, up from $4.8 billion in September 2015, the last full month before the country …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Here’s How the Big Card Networks Can Make Their Common Buy Button a Winner
The digital payments innovators used to be Mastercard and Visa, but with the rise of PayPal, it’s been a new game. Then along came Alipay and Apple Pay and many other local or specialized payment methods, making the playing field even more competitive for these card payment platforms. Visa Checkout …
Read More »Plastic Preferred for Vacations and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 5/21/18
Payments industry veteran Dan Henry has been named chairman of 3PEA International Inc., a prepaid card program manager. President and chief executive Mark Newcomer, who co-founded the company and has served as chairman since 2006, will become vice chairman. Henry was until recently chief executive of prepaid card specialist NetSpend, …
Read More »Retailers Amp Up Fraud Prevention for Their Online Gift Card Sales
Selling gift cards online makes a lot of sense for many merchants, but criminals know that, too, and have quickly figured out ways to steal the cards. Now, as merchants have increased their sophistication in countering these thefts, so too have criminals figured ways to foil the merchants. “Gift cards …
Read More »However It Will Work, the Common Buy Button Isn’t Going to Appear Any Time Soon
With each week that passes, the so-called unified buy button concept introduced by the major card networks last month takes on more definition, but despite all the discussion, the idea of an online checkout shared by multiple payment networks remains too vague—and too futuristic—to suit some expert observers. “I keep …
Read More »Payment Processor Spindle Cancels an Acquisition, But Rents the Target Company’s CEO
The struggling merchant processor Spindle Inc. canceled its planned acquisition of independent sales organization and gateway provider VyaPay, but reported Wednesday that it plans to form a so-called strategic alliance with VyaPay, and VyaPay’s chief executive will provide day-to-day management of Spindle. Mesa, Ariz.-based Spindle, whose shares trade over the …
Read More »Chili’s Reports Malware-Related Data Compromise at Company-Owned Restaurants
An undetermined number of Chili’s Grill and Bar restaurants sustained a data breach in March and April, Chili’s parent company Brinker International Inc. reported over the weekend. Dallas-based Brinker divulged few details in a Saturday post on the Chili’s Web site and in a new release the same day. It …
Read More »Now That Real-Time Is on the Horizon, Fee-Weary Merchants Look for Card Displacement
Financial institutions have been pushing real-time payments because they are supposed to be not only faster but also more cost-efficient. But now results of a global survey released Monday indicate merchants not only expect faster payments to be less expensive to accept, but also to displace the payment cards banks …
Read More »CPI Card Group’s Prepaid Card Sales Grow and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 5/11/18
The Western Union Co.’s Speedpay subsidiary announced the latest release of its Next Gen bill-payment platform. Card manufacturer CPI Card Group Inc. reported that first-quarter sales of credit and debit cards for the U.S. market fell 6.5% year-over-year, but U.S. prepaid card sales jumped 63%. The number of data breaches …
Read More »How Apple’s Goldman Gambit Could Help Lock in Banks Supporting Apple Pay
Apple Inc.’s move to create a new Apple Pay credit card with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. may or may not help boost usage of the mobile-payments service, but one thing it is likely to do is cement Apple’s ties with the thousands of banks that support the service, observers say. …
Read More »