News

October, 2014

• 29 October

  With Its McDonald’s Deal, Softcard Gains More Access to Everyday Spend for its NFC Wallet

    While Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile wallet has been grabbing the headlines, the telco-controlled Softcard mobile-payments service this week lined up another major fast-food chain. Consumers now can use their Softcard mobile wallets to pay for purchases at U.S. McDonald’s locations. Formerly known as Isis, Softcard is a smart …
• 29 October

  Theft of Users’ Email Addresses Overshadows MCX’s Attempt To Blunt ‘Misinformed’ Comment

  By Jim Daly and Kevin Woodward Just hours after Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX), the retailer-backed developer of the CurrentC mobile-payments service, posted a response to reports about some of its members dumping Apple Inc.’s rival Apple Pay service, the company notified customers that “unauthorized third parties” had obtained email …
• 29 October

  MCX Implies Its Ready To Accept General-Purpose Cards, but Questions Remain

  By Jim Daly Attempting to do damage control in the wake of an email hack and unfavorable publicity about retailers who want to accept other mobile wallets, the chief executive of the retailer-sponsored Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX) mobile-payments service said Wednesday that MCX is working with general-purpose credit card …
• 28 October

  Tech Firms See Opportunity As Remote Capture Leads to Rising Problem of Bad Check Images

  For the past decade, image exchange has been one of the undisputed success stories of electronic payments—so much so, in fact, that nearly all banking and retail executives take it for granted that paper checks will clear as images and funds will likely settle the same or next day. But …
• 28 October

  Evo Payments Bundles Loyalty, Promotions, and Rewards Into Its New Mobile POS Product

    Merchants using the newly released Evo Snap Mobile smart-phone and tablet-based point-of-sale service from Evo Payments International can create and manage loyalty, rewards, and promotion programs in addition to accepting payments. Melville, N.Y.-based Evo says the Snap Mobile service, available globally, works with iOS and Android devices. In addition …
• 27 October

  Issuers’ Apple Pay Pact Assigns Remarkable Authority to Card Networks As Well As Apple

  Issuers signing up to have their cards included in the Apple Pay wallet may benefit from all the hype Apple Inc. is generating for the new mobile-payment service. But behind the scenes, the 500 or so financial institutions that have enlisted in the program so far are also signing up …
• 24 October

  Apple Embeds NFC in Its New iPad Air 2, Stirring Speculation About Its Mobile POS Plans

  When Apple Inc. officially launched its Apple Pay mobile-payments service on Monday, all eyes were on the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the smart phones that carry the near-field communication (NFC) technology that makes Apple Pay work in stores. But now it turns out Apple has also embedded an …
• 23 October

  Pressure Builds for Faster Payments As The Clearing House Plans for Real-Time Settlement

  The effort to bring faster payment settlement to the United States gained momentum this week with an announcement by The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC that it plans to build what it calls a “real-time payment system.” The New York City-based organization, which is owned by the largest financial institutions …
• 23 October

  Would-Be Apple Pay Users Disappointed When Rite Aid Apparently Turns Off NFC

  By Jim Daly As a complex new technology-based service, Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay was certain to hit some speed bumps after it debuted Oct. 20. Sure enough, reports of glitches surfaced, such as about 1,000 double charges on Apple Pay transactions funded by Bank of America Corp. debit cards. But …
• 22 October

  Eye on E-Commerce: Jumio Debuts M-Commerce Service; Flint Offers Online Payment Service

    Two payment-services companies have separately introduced services designed to make it easier for merchants and consumers to engage in e-commerce and mobile commerce. Payments-and-authentication-services provider Jumio Inc.’s newest service aims to make it easier for consumers to shop using smart phones and tablets. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Jumio says its …