Mastercard

Despite Canada's high penetration of contactless POS terminals and consumer affinity for the technology, the country has lagged behind nations such as the U.K. and Singapore in contactless payments. That is set to change as Canada's transit schemes launch contactless open-payment systems.

From a refresher on basic payments terminology to the new battle of VHS vs. Betamax, here are some of the highlights from the recent Trellance conference in Fort Lauderdale.

A challenge for governments and banks in emerging countries is persuading consumers and small businesses to move from the informal cash economy to electronic payments. A project in Peru may be the answer.

Visa and Mastercard's "single button" for online payments seems like it would most directly threaten PayPal, but the card networks' campaign puts just as much pressure on Amazon's omnichannel push.

Mastercard's CEO sang the praises of a single "button" for online purchases, a stance that puts heat on online payment leader PayPal without the whiff of a direct attack.

In the ongoing quest to replace PINs and passwords, Mastercard has introduced a kit enabling consumers to register their own fingerprint on a biometric card at home, bypassing the need to visit a bank.

Mastercard has appointed Caroline Louveaux, one of its longtime data privacy experts, to be chief privacy officer, operating from the company’s offices in Brussels.

IoT and omnichannel require fast informed data-driven decisions for merchants, a challenge Mastercard hopes to address with predictive analytics, driving more transactions and fee income.

It's too soon to tell whether a new button would replace Visa Checkout and Masterpass as brands. It's also unclear why consumers would choose another new payment option over the many options available today — such as PayPal.

Mastercard and IBM have founded a company with a very narrow goal: to help organizations scramble their data to thwart hackers and comply with Europe's General Data Protection Regulation.

The Masterpass digital wallet will become embedded into the My Phillips 66 app later this year, enabling customers to pay at the pump or in the convenience store.

Ann Cairns has been named vice chairman at Mastercard, effective June 1, moving on from her role as president of international markets for the card brand.

The heads of Mastercard and Santander outlined the concrete steps their firms are taking to bring unbanked consumers into the financial system.

The problem is that, like usernames and passwords, biometrics are a static form of identity that can be exploited rather than a dynamic method that's of little use to crooks if stolen.

The main problem is that Amazon's Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant can’t yet verify a person’s identity. But there are already workarounds for that issue — and the tech giants may solve it soon.

Spotting an opportunity to help mobile network operators in the Asia Pacific region extend payments through emerging technology, Mastercard has rolled out a package of technology services to encourage product development.

To accomplish what she has in her 10-year tenure with Mastercard, Dana J. Lorberg simply had to be two things: "I am a programmer and a girl geek."

With a foray into financial services, Amazon.com could disrupt the decades-old card payments system, a move that some say could save the retailer $250 million a year in swipe fees.

Mastercard’s relentless push to streamline payments with digital technology is affecting the structure of its entire organization.

Fiserv is rolling out a fraud-detection and decisioning service for issuers from Mastercard that aims to increase the accuracy of card transactions they approve or reject based on potential fraud.