Technology

Merchant acquirers should be as concerned as the card brands over proposed legislation that would alter merchant fees, according to the Electronic Transactions Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group representing the acquiring industry.

Against long odds, EMV cards are finally coming to the United States.

For the time being the mobile banking environment is fairly safe. That's not because mobile phones are secure, often they're not. Few people use passwords or install anti-virus software. Security experts say they're safe simply because cybercriminals have not yet seriously targeted phones for malware. But as more people adopt mobile banking and it becomes more transactional-not just checking balances and getting alerts-the threats are likely to mount quickly.

U.S. consumer credit scores are holding steady, with the average score reaching 670 in April, up one point since the beginning of the year, according to new data from Credit Karma Inc.

The fast growth of social-networking sites containing users’ personal information is drawing concern from some payment data-security experts who say the risk of exposing consumers’ sensitive data is rising. And mobile-payment devices pose similar risks because many developers lack data-security expertise, they say.

The PIN Transaction Security standard consolidates three formerly separate requirements for PIN-entry devices in an update released today by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

Yespay International Ltd.’s Emboss platform has become Canada’s first EMV chip-and-PIN card-acceptance service fully certified by Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, according to the London-based payment-services provider.

Before the mobile contactless payments race has even kicked off, First Data and Visa have grabbed the wheels of the pace car to move the pack faster. Tired of waiting for phone makers and carriers to embrace the concept, both firms have teamed with tech firms to develop products that allow customers to place NFC chips into mobile phones that accept microSD cards.

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Heartland Payment Systems Inc. intends to roughly double its sales force in the next 18 months to increase its presence in the restaurant, lodging and health care industries, according to the Princeton, N.J.-based merchant processor.