News

October, 2014

• 16 October

  Apple Pay Goes Live Monday, As Apple, Samsung Join ETA

    The date is set. Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payment scheme, now with more than 500 banks supporting it, launches Monday, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company announced Thursday. Apple Pay is a payment scheme that has two components. One, available only in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, uses a near-field …
• 15 October

  While Smiling on NFC, eBay’s CEO Raises Possibility of PayPal-Apple Pay Link

  EBay Inc. chief executive John Donahoe on Wednesday appeared to open a door for PayPal Inc. to serve as a funding source in Apple Inc.’s new Apple Pay mobile-wallet service and to adopt near-field communication to link mobile devices with merchant points of sale. Without saying whether PayPal is actively …
• 14 October

  AmEx Converts Rewards Points Into Cash for Transactions at McDonald’s

  American Express Co. is making it easier for its cardholders to use their points to buy a Big Mac sandwich at McDonald’s restaurants in the United States. The card issuer announced Tuesday that AmEx rewards points now can be used to pay for purchases at select McDonald’s locations with national …
• 13 October

  Merchant Processor TransFirst Trades Private-Equity Owners While IPO Put On Hold

  Merchant acquirer TransFirst Inc. has a new owner. Private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners, San Francisco, is buying Hauppauge, N.Y.-based TransFirst for an undisclosed amount, TransFirst announced Monday. This summer, TransFirst, which has more than 200,000 merchants, had planned a partial initial public offering with its current owner, Welsh, Carson, Anderson …
• 10 October

  COMMENTARY: How History Is Repeating Itself With Apple Pay

  If you are an issuer of Visa or MasterCard, your deadline for participating in the Apple Pay service set to debut later this month has already passed. It was Tuesday, and issuers didn’t have much time to think about it (let alone perform a technical due diligence or negotiate terms). …
• 9 October

  First Data Chief Bisignano Hails New Spirit of Innovation, Asks To Be ‘Graded’

  A humble Frank Bisignano told top non-bank acquirer executives Thursday that his company, processing giant First Data Corp., wasn’t “always good” at listening to its clients and asked the audience to hold him “personally accountable” for the company’s performance in the coming year. Bisignano, a former JPMorgan Chase & Co. …
• 9 October

  U.S. Mobile Payments Forecasted to Reach $3.5 Billion in 2014

    Making a mobile payment is not commonplace yet, but the trend is heading that way, at least if a forecast from research firm eMarketer Inc. holds true. Mobile payments in the United States in 2014 are predicted to reach $3.5 billion, more than double the 2013 figure of $1.59 …
• 8 October

  Heartland CEO Predicts Apple Pay Will Force MCX To Abandon Mobile-Wallet Exclusivity

  Never one to mince words, Bob Carr, chief executive of the big merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc., predicts that demand for Apple Inc.’s new Apple Pay mobile-payment service will force the retailer-controlled Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) to abandon a policy of requiring its members to accept only MCX’s CurrentC …
• 8 October

  Clover Adding Apple Pay Contactless And In-App Capabilities to Its POS System

    Clover Network Inc., maker of the Clover tablet-based point-of-sale system, will be ready to accept Apple Pay contactless payment and in-app transactions when the scheme is released some time this month. That’s the word from Leonard Speiser, Clover co-founder and president. The Clover POS system will be able to …
• 8 October

  Discover Exec Warns Top ISO Execs They Face Loss of Relevance in Wake of Apps

  The arrival of technology companies and other new players in the payments business has left merchant processors scratching their heads over how to work with these emerging brands. Companies like Apple Inc., which has the potential to change both consumer and merchant behavior, have sent independent sales organizations scrambling to …