News

March, 2017

• 31 March

  What is the Future of Mobile Wallets? Anticipation and Waiting, Expert Panel Says

  

  As mobile-wallet backers wrestle with the right mix of features and functions—loyalty, offers, and payments—to incentivize consumers and merchants to use their products, they should get accustomed to waiting. That was the word Thursday in Orlando, Fla., from speakers at the 2017 Payments Summit, sponsored by the Secure Technology Alliance. …
• 31 March

  Apple Pay Victory in Australia and other Digital Transactions News briefs

  • CORRECTION: The March 30 issue of Digital Transactions News mischaracterized the business in which eProcessing Network LLC engages. It is a payment gateway. DTN regrets the error. • In a victory for Apple Inc. and its Apple Pay mobile-payments service, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission denied a request from four …
• 30 March

  Payments Pros Confront an IoT Challenge: Securing Devices Without Impeding Usage

  

  With a forecast of 15 billion new devices as part of the Internet of Things potentially coming online as payments devices by 2021, securing these devices, whether they are cars, wearables, or appliances, is emerging as a top concern. “We are seeing a huge increase in inadequately protected devices,” Graeme …
• 29 March

  Want Contactless Payments in the U.S.? Don’t Hold Your Breath, Say Industry Experts

  

  Contactless payments may seem like the next evolution of the U.S. payments industry, but the challenges confronting that technology may be greater than those of the ongoing chip migration, industry observers suggested on Tuesday at an industry trade show. “At the moment, contactless is much more complex, more expensive,” Allen …
• 29 March

  A Supreme Court Decision Favors Merchants in Latest Round in Battle Over Surcharging

  

  Merchants won a skirmish on Wednesday in their long-simmering battle with the card networks over acceptance costs with a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to void a lower-court ruling that upheld a state law banning credit card surcharging. The decision, in which all eight Justices concurred, sends the case …
• 29 March

  Mastercard Buys NuData Security And Other Digital Transactions News Briefs

  • Mastercard Inc. has agreed to acquire NuData Security, whose technology identifies users from their online, mobile-app, and smart-phone interactions. Terms were not disclosed. • Fair Isaac Corp., otherwise known as FICO, said it detected 70% more compromised debit cards at U.S. ATMs and point-of-sale terminals in 2016 than it did …
• 27 March

  With an Update, Square Shaves More Seconds From Contact EMV Processing Time

  

  Merchant acquirer Square Inc. has again improved the speed of EMV transactions made with its contact chip card reader, lowering the speed from 4.2 seconds, as reported in November, to 3.6 seconds, as noted by Jack Dorsey, Square chief executive and chairman, in a Twitter post on Friday. Earlier in …
• 27 March

  A Supreme Court Rebuff Sends a Massive Credit Card Interchange Case Back to Brooklyn

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heightened the uncertainty surrounding crucial payment card rules and practices by refusing to hear an appeal of a lower-court decision last summer that threw out a $5.7 billion antitrust settlement. The top court’s decision will likely lead to years of continuing litigation and negotiation, …
• 27 March

  COMMENTARY: Getting to ‘Yes’ for Faster (And Secure) Payments—Part II

  

  Part I of this three-part series outlined the development of the realization by the Fed’s payments task forces that payments are complicated, difficult, and expensive to change in order to make them safer and more efficient.  This installment deals with the growing concern about security threats that are shaping the …
• 26 March

  COMMENTARY: Getting to ‘Yes’ for Faster (And Secure) Payments—Part I

  

  This article is the first installment of a three-part series this week on what the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payment Initiative means to the payment economy in the U.S., and how the payments ecosystem might get to “yes” on fixing what’s broken and deploying what’s possible. This part deals with the …