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The cost of data breaches rose slightly last year, but breaches resulting from computer hacking incurred by far the highest losses, according to a new report from privacy and data-security research firm Ponemon Institute LLC. The average cost per compromised customer record rose to $204 in 2009 from $202 in …
Read More »MasterCard’s SunTrust Coup Includes Credit As Well As Debit Cards
MasterCard Inc. struck the latest blow in its ongoing fight with Visa Inc. for issuer loyalty with Thursday's announcement that SunTrust Banks Inc. would switch its entire 5-million-card debit portfolio from Visa to the MasterCard brand. While one analyst called it a minor win, SunTrust's conversion underscores the growing importance …
Read More »Card Industry Has a Compelling Case for Data Encryption, Report Says
End-to-end encryption of cardholder account data during the transaction process is an imperfect solution to payment card fraud, but it's the most practical out there now for the U.S., a new report about fraud management from Aite Group LLC concludes. The report estimates that fraud cost the U.S. card industry …
Read More »Heartland Settles with Visa, Agrees to Pay Nearly $60 Million for Losses
Merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. cleared away probably the single biggest remaining matter from the huge data breach it disclosed a year ago by announcing a $60 million settlement with Visa Inc. on Friday. The settlement will cover losses Visa credit and debit card issuers incurred in the wake …
Read More »Results Show a More Robust Holiday Shopping Season Than Expected
With the 2009 holiday shopping season all but over except for some post-Christmas bargain hunting, several payments indicators show that merchant acquirers are processing more transactions than many observers expected when the season began nearly two months ago. Online shopping tracked by Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the nation's largest e-commerce …
Read More »Six Months Later, MasterCard Softens a Controversial PCI Rule
MasterCard Inc. is changing a controversial policy, and pushing back a deadline, that it announced only six months ago regarding enforcement of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard. With the changes, which involve assessing computer systems for PCI compliance, MasterCard could be viewed as responding to valid complaints after first …
Read More »Settlements Still Leave Many Post-Breach Legal Woes for Heartland
With two settlements announced in less than a week, merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is putting some of the legal repercussions of its huge data breach behind it as 2009 draws to a close. But most of the legal troubles Heartland faces in the wake of the breach it …
Read More »Will Consumers’ Shift Away from Credit Cards Outlast the Recession?
Consumers have cut back their usage of credit cards in the past year, often on their own volition but also because suddenly risk-averse credit card issuers have closed millions of credit card accounts or reduced credit lines in their attempts to strengthen recession-racked balance sheets. Now the emerging question is …
Read More »Upbeat News from First Data on Average Tickets, Same-Store Sales
Christmas cheer for merchants and transaction processors came a little early this week with the news that both transaction volumes and dollar sales from cards for at least one major processor are finally trending up, yielding a scant but welcome uptick in average tickets. Even more encouraging: the increases came …
Read More »Peak Shopping Days Give Cause for Cautious Optimism on Payments
Electronic payments are showing signs of life as consumers open up their wallets and purses early in this holiday spending season. But just how wide they'll open those wallets and purses as the season goes on is uncertain. The early take is that volumes are up from 2008's anemic levels, …
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