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Now that the Federal Reserve has released its plan for faster payments in the United States, observers are applauding the effort while expressing some impatience with what they see as the central bank’s overly deliberate approach. “The Fed is indeed headed in the right direction, but it is a slow …
Read More »C-Store Chain Wawa Debuts a Mobile Payments And Rewards App
Starbucks Corp. has proven that consumer apps for buying coffee are becoming more popular, and now convenience stores have joined in with c-store chain Wawa Inc. launching its mobile-payments and rewards app. To use the payment function of the Wawa app, which is available for iOS and Android smart …
Read More »The Fed Releases Strategies, Plans for Faster Payments, Looks for Industry Participation
In a blueprint released Monday for a faster and more secure U.S. payments system, the Federal Reserve called for industry task forces to form early this year and for a “framework” to emerge by 2016 to set rules for near real-time payments. The banking regulator also set out five broad, …
Read More »Eye on Earnings: Card Volume Up for AmEx And Discover, But AmEx To Cut Jobs
American Express Co. reported $182.5 billion in U.S. card-billed business in the fourth quarter, up 7.9% from $169.1 billion a year earlier, and discount-fee revenues increased 1.8% to $4.99 billion from $4.90 billion. The average worldwide discount rate, however, decreased three basis points to 2.45% of the sale. American Express …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Securing the Future of Safe Electronic Payments
Americans love to shop. Whether online, in a small mom-and-pop business, or at a big-box retailer, shoppers turned out in droves this past holiday season. From Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday for example, online sales were up 12.6%–a record week–according to the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. For the holiday season overall, …
Read More »Seeking an ‘Integrated Mobile Offer,’ Ingenico Completes Takeover of Roam Data
Point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico Group now owns all of Roam Data, a mobile POS company it first invested in in 2009. France-based Ingenico says the Roam brand will continue to be used on products, but the company name will be wrapped up into Ingenico. “With 100% of Roam, we will …
Read More »PayPal Here Reader Adds Windows 8.1 Support, With App Integration Later This Month
PayPal Inc. updated its reader for its PayPal Here mobile point-of-sale service with Windows 8.1 support and separately plans to release software to integrate reader support into iOS and Android apps. Introduced in 2012, PayPal Here enables merchants to use their smart phones and tablets as payment-acceptance devices. The inclusion …
Read More »Restaurateurs Look to Tablets And Kiosks To Fuse In-Store, Digital Commerce
CKE Restaurants Inc., parent of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast-food chains, and TGI Fridays Inc. are using Microsoft Corp. technology to speed up the ordering and purchase process in their restaurants, the Redmond, Wash.-based computing giant announced on Monday. Carrollton, Texas-based TGI Fridays is putting 8-inch tablets into the …
Read More »New Verifone mPOS Device, Android Tablet Among Flurry of NRF Announcements
Several payments-industry vendors are making product and services announcements in conjunction with the National Retail Federation’s annual Big Show convention this week in New York. Verifone unveiled the PayWare Mobile e355, a mobile point-of-sale terminal that accepts magnetic stripe, near-field communication (NFC), Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV), and Apple Pay transactions. Available in …
Read More »Can EMVCo’s Aegis Rescue a Floundering 3D Secure for Online Payments Security?
Card-not-present fraud is the bane of any merchant that operates an e-commerce site, and EMVCo, a standards body for the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) specification, hopes its newly assumed oversight of the 3D Secure authentication standard can help them. Operated as Visa Inc.’s Verified by Visa and MasterCard Inc.’s SecureCode, 3D Secure …
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