Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Amazon.com Inc. quietly killed its PayPhrase online-authentication service on Feb. 20, not quite two-and-a-half years after introducing the system. The PayPhrase credentials system allowed online shoppers to check out using only a word or phrase of their choosing and a PIN that they had registered with the Amazon Payments service. …
Read More »Discover Releases an EMV Plan That Echoes Key Deadlines from Visa, MasterCard
n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n
Read More »Consumers Look to Tech Firms for Innovation But Place Their Trust in Banks
Countless news reports have reported or speculated about what Google Inc., Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Facebook Inc. have done or might do in mobile payments. Consumers, however, don’t rate these four companies as highly as they do their own banks or traditional payment companies in trustworthiness involving their financial …
Read More »Merchant Group Lays Plans for Retailer-Controlled Mobile Payments, With or Without NFC
Dissatisfied with the current crop of mobile-payments systems from tech companies, cell-phone providers, card networks and banks, a group of U.S. retailers is embarking on its own plan to bring smart-phone payments to their customers. The merchants stress that their venture will not necessarily be based on near-field communication (NFC), …
Read More »Threat of Identity Theft Stalks Users of Social Media and Smart Phones
After bottoming out in 2010, identity fraud rose nearly 13% last year, according to new findings from Javelin Strategy & Research. Javelin’s findings also associate two hallmarks of the tech-oriented early 21st Century, social networks and smart phones, with a higher risk of identity fraud. Pleasanton, Calif.-based Javelin surveyed 5,022 …
Read More »Processor Execs Echo Merchant Sentiment in Favor of PINs for Chip Cards
Some of the nation’s biggest merchants have been adamant for months that they prefer EMV payments with PINs, not signatures, and on Thursday they were joined in that sentiment by a panel of representatives from some of the country’s largest processors. In the face of tepid support, at best, for …
Read More »Google Announces a Fix for Prepaid Flaw As Security Holes Plague Its Wallet
Google Inc. late on Tuesday announced a solution for a security flaw in its mobile wallet that allows hackers to gain access to wallet owners’ prepaid accounts. Google also said it had, on Monday afternoon, restored the ability to load funds on new prepaid cards. In response to the flaw, …
Read More »Now Taking EMV Cards at Some U.S. Stores, Wal-Mart Prods EFT Networks to Get in the Game
With both Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. now on the record with plans to encourage the adoption of EMV chip card and mobile payments in the U.S, it seems all but certain that the magnetic-stripe payment card’s days are numbered. In fact, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. already is seeing some EMV …
Read More »Food, Dining Places Especially Vulnerable to Card-Data Breaches, Report Finds
Among all the types of merchants that accept card transactions, coffee shops, pizza parlors, burger places, and food stores might need to keep an extra-careful watch on their card data. If they’re operating as a franchisee and part of a chain, they might want to be especially wary. And if …
Read More »Visa Unveils Chip Services As Its U.S. EMV Card Base Crosses the 1 Million Threshold
Visa Inc. reported on Monday that its U.S. financial-institution clients have issued more than 1 million chip cards compliant with the EMV standard. The leading payment card network also introduced new EMV processing services so that issuers can reduce their own investments in chip technology. Just over 10 issuers now …
Read More »