Merchant

PayPal Inc. has recast its offerings for small merchants, a move it says builds on its recent launch of the PayPal Here portable card reader.

The availability announced last month of ACI Worldwide Inc.’s newest integrated payment service is a step in the right direction to prepare merchant acquirers, retail banks, and ATM and payment processors for market changes ahead, one analyst contends.

Global Payments Inc.’s massive data breach underscores the need for the U.S. to embrace the EMV standard without delay, at least one chip card proponent contends.

American Express Co. is working with Transaction Network Services Inc. to provide a payment-gateway service for e-commerce.

Two weeks before bitterly contested regulations regarding its debit cards went into effect in the fall, MasterCard Worldwide threw a party in New York. The company wanted to trumpet its commitment to the newest technology in payments, including a role in the about-to-launch Google Wallet, which lets a handful of eligible consumers buy chewing gum or bottled water by waving their smartphones around. Executives at the event were determinedly festive.

The Federal Trade Commission filed an injunction in federal court Monday charging that a web of defendants - including AMG Services Inc., several Internet-based lending companies and race car driver Scott Tucker - violated federal laws by deceiving consumers when providing and collecting on payday loans.

There’s a train pulling into the station, and it’s right on time.

The Global Payments Inc. breach and others like it suggest banks should rethink how they protect card data.

A chip-and-signature route to U.S. EMV adoption certainly would be less painful for banks and merchants than would the chip-and-PIN approach used most everywhere else, but taking the easy way out carries risk.

Global Payments' response to the data breach disclosed last week, as well as the card networks' response, followed a familiar script.