News

November, 2014

• 2 November

  New York State’s Financial Boss Offers Break for Startups as New York Develops Its “Bitlicense”

  In an effort to prevent money laundering, New York State’s top financial regulator made history last year when he proposed that virtual-currency providers obtain a so-called “Bitlicense” to ensure that they have proper controls in place to protect consumers’ money. Now Benjamin M. Lawsky, superintendent of the New York Department …

October, 2014

• 30 October

  Led by Former Google Wallet Honcho Bedier, Poynt Offers ‘Attractive’ Terminal But Faces Big Challenges

  Count Poynt Co. as the newest member of the point-of-sale terminal maker industry. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company hopes to entice merchants, developers, and resellers to its product. Osama Bedier, Poynt chief executive, formerly led Google Inc.’s Google Wallet and before that worked at PayPal Inc. The L-shaped device rests on …
• 30 October

  Eye on Earnings: MasterCard’s Volumes Grow; Mercury Boosts Vantiv’s Merchant Segment

  Financial analysts gave MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. credit for leading a New York Stock Exchange rally Thursday as higher consumer spending on payment cards boosted the networks’ revenues. And processor Vantiv Inc. reported a 42% increase in merchant-processing revenues in the wake of its June acquisition of Mercury Payment …
• 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 …
• 29 October

  Visa’s Scharf Stresses the Network’s Digital Future, Promises ‘We Will Win’

  Stressing new services such as tokenization, online checkout, and mobile payments, Visa Inc. chief executive Charles W. Scharf on Wednesday left no doubt where the sprawling card network’s future lies. “The things we are doing are all about having the best products in the market to capture where the growth …
• 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 …