Merchant

Institutions must enhance their fraud prevention strategy, and the most effective and successful way for doing so is by empowering customers to detect and respond to suspicious activity before the funds ever leave their account, writes Deborah Peace, CEO of ACH Alert.

To expand its Asia Pacific regional reward redemption program, Pay with Points, Citi announced that it is enabling credit cardholders to spend their rewards points and miles to pay for a Spotify premium account.

The Texas bank, which partners with the U.S. Treasury to dispense federal benefits via prepaid cards, is alleged to have dropped the ball as hundreds of cardholders say their money was forwarded to fraudsters posing as them.

Citigroup was so impressed with a test drive of AI software it invested in its maker; the FBI's warning of a cyberattack targeting ATMs came to pass — expect more to come; debating whether state AGs can serve as de facto CFPBs; and more from this week's most-read stories.

Google can’t underestimate the importance of its maiden voyage with Google Wallet and the lessons the company learned in being one of the first to offer payments through cellphones in the U.S.

The move is important for new banks in states like California, where a small-business lending program requires a three-star rating from the agency.

After researchers exposed how hackable mobile point of sale systems are, vendors quickly shored up their defenses — while also blaming some vulnerabilities on payment methods they characterize as outdated.

The retailer-driven Merchant Customer Exchange initiative to create a common mobile wallet had good intentions, but it overlooked the nature of retail itself — that each company has to differentiate itself to lure customers.

When engaging in an increasingly competitive credit card rewards and benefits market, issuers have to make sure their programs and pitches to consumers are as simple as possible. But that's hard to do when perks range from points and rewards to the very materials used to build the cards.

Along with activating contactless payments at its store terminals, Costco has opened its checkout lines to Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay. But there’s a catch.