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U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, author of 2010’s controversial Durbin Amendment, wants to know about the inner workings of EMVCo, the chip card standards body owned by the six largest global payment card networks. A statement Thursday from the Illinois Democrat says Durbin is “seeking information on whether the deployment of …
Read More »First Data Continues Streamlining Operations With Facilities Changes
First Data Corp. recently closed one office in Florida and plans to close a bigger one in New York next year, but the company still added 1,000 employees to its worldwide head count last year. Newsday, the newspaper of Long Island, N.Y., reported Tuesday that First Data filed a report …
Read More »Discount Grocer Aldi Reverses Course and Now Accepts Credit Cards
The prominent, slightly self-effacing graphic on discount grocery-store chain Aldi Inc.’s home page says it all: “OMG! We FINALLY Accept Credit Cards!” Indeed, Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi is believed to be the last major grocery holdout in accepting general purpose credit cards, which typically cost merchants more to accept than the …
Read More »Citi’s Deal To Buy the AmEx Costco Portfolio Moves a Step Closer
The cessation of the cobranded Costco Wholesale Corp. credit card issued by American Express Co. moved another step closer with Monday’s announcement that Citigroup will buy the AmEx Costco portfolio for an unspecified sum. Citi’s acquisition of the portfolio is expected to close this summer. That’s when Citi will begin to …
Read More »The PCI Council Plans an Early Release of Its Updated Data-Security Standard
The PCI Securities Standards Council said Wednesday that the next iteration of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard will be coming in the first half of this year, probably in March or April, about six months earlier than called for in the current update cycle. The new version, dubbed PCI …
Read More »Payments Execs Already Foresee the Store Checkout Yielding to ‘Uberesque Approach’
While mobile wallets, near-field communication, and EMV have focused all eyes in the payments industry on the physical point of sale, some mobile-payments executives are starting to prepare for what they see as the fading away of the traditional checkout counter. Technology already exists that allows customers to order ahead …
Read More »Universal Card Coin Faces a Lawsuit Over Alleged Misrepresentations
The prospect of ubiquitous merchant acceptance and the ability to carry just one card in lieu of several was too much of a promise, alleges a lawsuit filed last week against Coin Inc., a startup offering a universal card service. Filed on behalf of two consumers who each purchased a …
Read More »Eye on Fraud: EMV Spurs Fraud Increase, Says Javelin; Landry’s Reports a POS System Breach
A new report finds that fraud activity is surging, while Landry’s Inc. says it has uncovered malware on its point-of-sale system and removed it. Identify fraud is on the rise, finds the 2016 Identity Fraud Study released Tuesday by Javelin Strategy & Research. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based research firm found that …
Read More »MasterCard Posts Growth for Fourth Quarter And 2015 U.S. Purchase Volume And Cards
MasterCard Inc. on Friday said purchase volume made with its U.S.-issued credit and debit cards grew by 8.7% in the fourth quarter and 7.7% for all of 2015, compared with the same periods a year ago. MasterCard also said the number of U.S.-issued credit and debit cards increased. In the …
Read More »More Mobile Payments This Year Will Likely Mean More Fraud Potential, FICO Warns
To the extent there is greater mobile-payments use among merchants and consumers this year, that increase will likely bring with it a greater potential for fraud. That’s the cautionary note from Fair Isaac Corp. executive T.J. Horan, vice president of fraud solutions at the analytics-software company. In-store mobile payments will …
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