David Heun

Intuit Inc. has dipped its toe in the payments pond often, and now the business software provider wants to make a bigger splash by enticing more merchants to use QuickBooks Online.

The merchant acquiring industry faces continuing pressure from shrinking margins and disruptive competitors, but it has used the past five challenging years to seek out a position of strength.

Square has boosted its technology capabilities while expanding its presence in Canada through the acquisition of Toronto-based Kili Technology Corp.

A false sense of security still emanates from 70% of information technology teams that feel they are safe from cyberattacks, despite evidence that data breaches are a growing and ongoing threat.

For the past two years, acquirers and processors have taken aim at the lengthy EMV chip-card certification process as a major stumbling block for U.S. merchants preparing to upgrade from magnetic stripe technology in time to avoid a shift in fraud liability.

PayPal is creating a new cyber-security center in Tel Aviv as part of its acquisition of Israeli security vendor CyActive.

Seeking a uniform process for card-not-present transactions in the Single Euro Payments Area throughout Europe, the European Payments Council has created a blueprint for an interoperable card and terminal infrastructure.

The European Parliament on March 9 voted in favor of capping interchange fees for domestic and cross-border transactions, a move that many European banks anticipated.

It is fitting that Apple CEO Tim Cook opened the Apple Watch presentation by showing off a Mickey Mouse watch face. The Apple Watch shares a lot more than its design sense with Disney's successful MagicBand wearables.

"We can start by changing the conversation. It's not about the latest gadget or shiny object, instead it's about the impact this technology is having on consumers and businesses."

"Today, payments companies are all around us.Retailers have come together to create a mobile payments company … and regional debit networks are expanding capabilities to support a wider variety of transactions to attempt to compete with traditional credit networks."

"We often believe in our ability to excel and succeed in senior leadership positions, but without the action to break through this barrier."

"The emphasis currently on mobile technology is around security and how it changes the in-store, and now, online, shopping experience. It is impacting everything from how a card member finds the best price to how they are paying for the purchase at the point of sale."

"An industry that some may have considered to be synonymous with conservative, slow-moving tactics is embracing the innovations of the digital age."

Merchants are far from helpless bystanders as Apple and banks sort out who is responsible for stopping fraudulent cards from being enrolled in the Apple Pay mobile wallet.

ATMs in some key Las Vegas locations will allow consumers to obtain U.S. dollars with foreign payment cards through Monex Financial Services' dynamic currency conversion technology.

The age of the interactive card may have finally arrived, ushered in by the U.S. shift to the EMV standard.

Japanese mobile app provider Line Corp. will use CyberSource's e-commerce payment services to expand the Line Pay mobile payment service by supporting more payment options.

Here's the sales pitch: use the service as much as you want for a flat monthly fee of under $10, potentially saving money over paying per transaction. It sounds like Netflix, but it's a new and fairly unconventional approach to how Cardtronics is selling ATM access.

Square hopes to broaden its reach with its core micro-merchant market by offering technology to tap the $1.6 trillion e-commerce market.