Merchant

Momentum for the EMV smart card security standard, common in many European countries, grew this week with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. announcing plans to start issuing EMV cards to U.S. customers this summer.

For the major card brands, emerging global markets that broadly lack access to financial services likely will represent the greatest earnings potential for mobile-payments initiatives, concludes a report from Macquarie Equities Research Group.

A Malaysian national, arrested in October hours after flying into Kennedy International Airport, pleaded guilty in New York April 13 to hacking into the Federal Reserve’s computer system and to illegally possessing hundreds of thousands of card account numbers and other account information.

A Woodlands, Texas-based independent sales organization has added a processing platform and is growing into a super ISO with fewer but higher-producing partners, company executives say.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on April 12 published guidelines for online third-party payment providers in an attempt to regulate the fast-developing business-to-consumer e-commerce market.

The Federal Trade Commission has charged two men and their companies with billing consumers without their consent, and not providing promised refunds, in violation of federal law.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Jon Tester opened debate on delaying the controversial interchange rule this morning insisting the proposed cuts in debit fees will cause unintended harm to rural banks and credit unions, even as the Senator and his allies desperately search for a bill to attach their delay measure to.

Perhaps the most critical thing bankers have learned from the breach at Epsilon, the email marketing unit of Alliance Data Systems Corp. of Plano, Texas, is that there is no such thing as "low-value" information anymore. All stolen information is worth its virtual weight in gold.

American Express Co. is positioning its undisclosed investment in mobile-payments company Payfone Inc. as the next step in adding additional functionality to the card brand’s new Serve digital wallet product.

Independent sales organizations and agents should hire lawyers to help draw up contracts and navigate the revenue split from merchant transactions, as such legal advice can help ward off unpleasant surprises, observers agree.