Technology

The date for U.S. merchants to start benefiting from preparing early for EMV smart card technology at the point of sale lurks next week. Unfortunately, the future of payments technology won’t come into clearer focus for merchants that quickly.

A provision within the hotly contested settlement between merchants and credit card networks could potentially slow PayPal’s bid to become more widely accepted at grocery stores, restaurants and other retailers.

Recent bitcoin thefts may appear to be a security threat that could potentially invalidate the cryptocurrency, but proponents argue that it’s the stability of the digital exchanges where the thefts have occurred that are more at risk.

A brighter outlook for overall business conditions and hiring bolstered consumer confidence to the highest mark since February, according to The Conference Board.

New players are disrupting the established order and taking market share from independent sales organizations. This rapid pace of change in payments may drive many ISOs out of business, speakers said at an industry event.

Bankers “wake up in the middle of the night” worrying about data breaches in the U.S. payment system, a Citigroup executive said this week.

Spire Payments will partner with technology investor Newland Computers in developing future products and rolling out a new line of point-of-sale terminals.

Discover Financial Services (DFS) earned $621 million for its third quarter ended August 31, 2012, up 3% from the same period year earlier, the company said Thursday.

Credit card indicators are looking good, with August numbers showing charge-offs decreasing for most asset-backed securities trusts.

Virtual terminal provider PayTrace has integrated its transaction processing capabilities with the First Data North network.