Merchant

Some experts question whether the United States can meet the deadlines the card brands have set for converting to the EMV chip-card standard from magnetic-stripe cards.

Nearly a third of acquirers surveyed still view mobile payments as a threat.

PayPal's point of sale mobile payment system combines over half a decade of initiatives — and a few notable setbacks along the way.

As a new partner for PayPal, an early partner for Isis and the first issuer to sign on to a new method of participating with Google Wallet, Discover Financial Services is establishing itself as a foundation for mobile payments initiatives.

PayPal next year will extend its reach through Discover Financial Services' network, enabling direct acceptance of the PayPal digital wallet at more than seven million U.S. merchants.

Visa is offering a new data encryption service that could compete with third-party security vendors' offerings. The service's launch also indicates the card brand's growing desire to push beyond the requirements of the Payment Card Industry data security standards.

The merchant wasn't interested in buying, but Joe Porco handed him a business card anyway. The merchant disdainfully threw the card into a waste basket ... and three years of perseverance later he was doing business with the merchant.

Intrix has introduced Invoice Creator, a module for its payment gateway that enables merchants to create and manage invoices from a virtual location.

Independent sales organizations, banks and processors can now offer merchants a virtual business center with 24-7 access to information, services and tools.

In a week's time, the mobile payments world was turned upside down as Square announced a major partnership with Starbucks and a radically different pricing option for merchants. Now payments providers are beginning to piece together how they can ride this wave instead of getting crushed underneath it.