Merchant

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quickly shored up their defenses — while also blaming some vulnerabilities on payment methods they characterize as outdated.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.

Risk management and payments technology provider linked2pay says paycosmos has become the first independent sales organization to offer its merchants the Instant Merchant Settlements service.

Air Canada and its banking partners sweetened their bid for Aeroplan, winning over Aimia’s board and an activist shareholder that was seeking a higher price.

Bitcoin's scale and energy consumption have held it back as a payments option, but there are advancements that can change that, according to Jan-Willem Burgers, Europe technology lead with the distributed ledger practice at Capgemini.

The subscription payments market is increasingly popular, but acquirers won't get by on only handling the payments.