David Heun

Google can’t underestimate the importance of its maiden voyage with Google Wallet and the lessons the company learned in being one of the first to offer payments through cellphones in the U.S.

Despite recent scrutiny of mobile point of sale devices, the mobile payments category as a whole has generally carried a promise of initiating a safer transaction through the use of biometrics, device ID, geolocation and other factors.

The retailer-driven Merchant Customer Exchange initiative to create a common mobile wallet had good intentions, but it overlooked the nature of retail itself — that each company has to differentiate itself to lure customers.

When engaging in an increasingly competitive credit card rewards and benefits market, issuers have to make sure their programs and pitches to consumers are as simple as possible. But that's hard to do when perks range from points and rewards to the very materials used to build the cards.

Risk management and payments technology provider linked2pay says paycosmos has become the first independent sales organization to offer its merchants the Instant Merchant Settlements service.

After 20 years of working with a clunky, time-consuming 3-D Secure authorization method for online purchases, the wheels are finally in motion to get the upgraded 2.0 version in place for merchants and banks, granting access to more data for spotting fraud.

American Express is entering the arena of wearable payments in offering the Amex Band to cardholders attending the US Open tennis tournament in New York.

Domestic card growth has not lived up to the bank’s expectations, even after its Costco coup. So it is making changes here to get product development, payments technology and card portfolio management on the same page worldwide.

For Citigroup, a change in how it plans to operate in the U.S. is all about streamlining operations so its global network can be on the same page regarding product development, payments technology and card portfolio growth.

Processing.com has 25 acquiring banks lined up as its transaction network, creating a safety net for dealing with high-risk merchants.