News

June, 2012

• 4 June

  With New Retail Deals, Square Doubles Locations That Sell Its Card Readers

  Merchant processor Square Inc. doubled the number of physical stores at which its now-famous payment card reader for mobile devices can be purchased with Monday’s announcement that the reader is available at Walgreen Co., Staples Inc., and FedEx Corp.’s FedEx Office stores. The three new merchants collectively add 10,000 locations: …
• 4 June

  Eye on Mobile: Consumers Like Non-Bank Wallets; Android Stays on Top

  Nearly half of consumers are interested in using mobile wallets, and they are not necessarily wedded to wallet products from banks, according to research released on Monday. Indeed, some 48% of U.S. consumers surveyed online in April said they are interested in mobile wallets. Of these, 80% expressed a preference …

May, 2012

• 31 May

  Startup Claims More Than 1,000 Developers for Streamlined in-App Payment Plug-in

  A startup called Zooz this week announced it has registered more than 1,000 developers for a payment plug-in that, the company says, streamlines card-based payments while users are within an app. Zooz, whose product is available for both Android and Apple iOS devices, also launched an HTML5 version to allow …
• 30 May

  Groupon Doubles Down on Its POS Thrust with Acquisition of Hospitality App Startup

  Groupon Inc. redoubled its efforts to penetrate the point-of-sale market with its acquisition of New York City-based software startup Breadcrumb, whose product lets restaurants run transactions on iPad tablets. The deal, announced on Tuesday, follows news that the Chicago-based daily-deal giant is testing a mobile-acceptance service in and around San …
• 30 May

  Hit by Durbin, Visa’s U.S. Debit Volume Shrinks by Double Digits in April

  Visa Inc. has been saying for months that the Durbin Amendment’s transaction-routing and network-exclusivity rules, which took effect April 1, would take a bite out of its debit business. Gash might be a better word for the amendment’s initial effects, especially on the Visa-owned Interlink PIN-debit network. The No. 1 …
• 29 May

  Nordstrom Projects Rollout of Register-Like POS Handsets by Early 2013

  High-end department-store chain Nordstrom Inc., which has been testing some 6,000 mobile devices for customer service and checkout, expects to roll out a significantly larger number of the devices in the first quarter of next year and to add as much capability to them as it has on its cash …
• 29 May

  ClearXchange Goes National But Faces Rivalry from PayPal, Fiserv

  A year after its birth announcement, the clearXchange person-to-person payments platform finally is set for its first national rollout through a new service called Send & Receive Money from one of its three big-bank owners, Wells Fargo & Co. But clearXchange, whose other owners are Bank of America Corp. and …
• 25 May

  Reports Indicate Groupon Is Joining a Crowded Field of Mobile-Acceptance Players

  Just as payments executives were preparing to plunge into the Memorial Day holiday weekend, reports emerged that Groupon Inc. is testing a mobile-acceptance application in and around San Francisco. The reports, which are based in part on a solicitation received via e-mail by a merchant, indicate that the Chicago-based daily-deal …
• 24 May

  Card-Not-Present Processor Litle Reports Durbin Has Cut Debit Interchange in Half

  Online merchants and other card-not-present retailers that have so-called interchange-plus agreements with their acquirers are enjoying significantly lower transaction costs thanks to the Durbin Amendment, if research from processor Litle & Co. posted on Wednesday is any indication. Litle’s numbers indicate its client merchants have seen interchange costs cut in …
• 24 May

  PayPal Signs 15 New Retailers for POS, Plus Terminal Makers and App Developers

  PayPal Inc. on Thursday announced that 15 more retailers had joined its point-of-sale initiative, which means the No. 1 alternative-payments provider is now more than three-quarters of the way toward meeting its stated goal of having 20 national retailers accepting PayPal at physical stores by the end of 2012. PayPal …