Merchant

Credit card issuers have been trying to outdo each other to offer the best rewards program. And it shows, as customer satisfaction rates with many (but not all) of their banks have never been higher in a yearly J.D. Power study. But they may not last forever.

Credit card issuers are still targeting high-spending customers, who tend to be resilient to economic swings, but competition at the top is brutal and marketing costs are high. At the other end of the credit spectrum, it’s a different story.

If tokenization can help us recapture liquidity not only for currencies, but by digitizing the value of all assets, time and work in a more flexible, fair exchange, that’s exciting, writes Jason English, vice president of protocol marketing for Sweetbridge.

Using good, old-fashioned customer service and consultation to cut down on merchant attrition has been part of the acquiring playbook for years. But that playbook is long overdue for an update.

A bot-powered wave is on the way, and some firms will adapt, others will simply perish. It will be survival of the fittest, writes Beerud Sheth, founder and CEO of Gupshup.

Payments processor iPayment Inc. is getting back into the merchant cash advance business.

The real lag behind fintech started when banks rested on those online and mobile banking laurels and allowed other players in the mobile space to bypass them in working toward mobile point of sale payment services, writes Jack Jania, senior vice president of strategic payment alliances at Gemalto.

An analysis of a test shows runtime application self-protection (RASP) successfully defends mobile banking apps targeted by BankBot against overlay attacks, writes Frederik Mennes, manager of the security competence center at Vasco Data Security.

Connected devices, mobile and new processing standards require a larger technology upgrade than the quick updates of the past, according to Rajesh Venkatraman, director of worldwide payments at IBM.

Chatbots are the next big thing in payments. But a poor in-chat commerce strategy can turn off consumers and create bad user experiences.