News

May, 2017

• 1 May

  The Top-Heavy Acquiring Industry

  

  Consulting firm The Strawhecker Group is out with its 2016 rankings of U.S. merchant acquirers, and they show that 240 acquirers and independent sales organizations processed more than $5 trillion in payment volume. The 10 biggest acquirers accounted for 80% of that volume. Topping the list is JPMorgan Chase & …
• 1 May

  Slow on the Uptake for Faster Payments

  

  The subject of faster payments has been in the news almost continually for months now, but apparently awareness of the subject, and in some cases adoption, remains lower than expected among the financial institutions that will be depended on to implement speedier settlement. That’s if survey results released in April …
• 1 May

  The 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 …
• 1 May

  Chuck Your Password

  

  “What?!” That’s the mildest reaction I get from my clients when I dispense the advice encapsulated in the title of this month’s column. “A password I remember I don’t need to write down, so it cannot be pilfered,” says the incredulous client. “Not so,” I reply, and people are not …
• 1 May

  ACQUIRERS TARGET DIGITAL MARKETING

  Savvy execs look beyond payment processing for earnings growth. Text Receipts are a natural starting point. Credit card processing has long been a commodity business in the United States. Just as in other markets, large merchants have unbeatable pricing and it’s the small and medium sized businesses, or “SMBs”, who …
• 1 May

  Should Fintech Be Regulated?

  

  If you want to see a rowdy debate, try gathering a group of colleagues and posing the question of whether or not fintech companies should be regulated. In posing this question to several groups of payments professionals, I have observed that the same arguments, pro and con, keep coming up. …
• 1 May

  THE NOT-SO-FRIENDLY WORLD OF FRIENDLY FRAUD

    By Jacob Bennett, ETA CPP It’s important to understand the significance of friendly fraud, the damage it can cause, and how merchants can avoid it. Friendly fraud. The name is misleading as there’s really nothing “friendly” about it. Friendly fraud is a type of chargeback in which a customer …
• 1 May

  Worldpay Declares Its Network Quick Chip Ready

  

  Quick Chip, a Visa Inc. protocol for streamlining the EMV transaction process, is now available on processor Worldpay’s network. Announced Monday, the service reduces a chip card terminal’s transaction time by approximately 3 seconds, Worldpay says. Quick Chip eliminates the need to leave the card in the reader while waiting …
• 1 May

  If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em Part Way: Behind Deluxe’s eCheck Technology

  

  For all the talk by companies about how adopting electronic-payment technologies will streamline their accounts-payable processes, paper checks remain a staple of the business-to-business world. Businesses cut 13.1 billion checks a year, according to check printer Deluxe Corp. To join the advantages of electronic processing with those of paper checks, …
• 1 May

  Perceptions of Card-Not-Present Fraud Need Clarification, U.S. Payments Forum Says

  

  Card-not-present fraud is growing as EMV chip cards make it harder for fraudsters to use counterfeit credit and debit cards at the point of sale, but perceptions about the reasons for the increase may need some clarification, according to the U.S. Payments Forum. “Some of the reports of large rises …