Technology

EMVCo LLC this week launched an initiative enabling all payments-industry stakeholders to participate in guiding the organization’s strategic and technical direction.

Nxgen International is opening operations in the United Kingdom and Italy as part of a European expansion strategy the Whitefish, Mont.-based merchant-service provider announced this week. Diversifying geographically can help Nxgen grow and differentiate itself further, says Giuseppe Caltabiano, Nxgen president.

In another sign the economic recovery is slow-going, consumer bankruptcy filings surged 14% in February compared with a year earlier, according to a report by the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Point-of-sale terminal maker Hypercom Corp. this week reported a $624,000 fourth quarter profit, marking the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company’s third consecutive profitable quarter. Hypercom reported a $74.8 million loss for the fourth quarter of 2008.

A recent study that focuses on Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliance among large merchants also is helpful for educating ISOs and the smaller merchants with which they typically work, observers note. ISOs should educate themselves not only about their specific markets but also about all aspects of data security and compliance in the payments industry to better serve their clients and ensure all merchants protect card data, they say.

Merchants appear to like VeriFone Holdings Inc.’s PayWare mobile-phone payment service on Apple Inc.’s iPhone and their customers are completing big-ticket purchases using the devices.

Visa Inc. says U.S. consumers drove $61.1 million in Visa cardholder spending in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, more than half of the total $115.3 million attendees spent locally on Visa cards during the event.

Nokia Corp. plans to team up with Mumbai-based Yes Bank to plot Nokia Money, a mobile-commerce platform, in India, a Bangalore-based official at the Finnish Handset Maker tells PaymentsSource.

Noor Islamic Bank plans launch the United Arab Emirates’ first mobile Internet-banking service in Arabic, the Dubai-based bank announced on March 1.

No official movement is afoot to switch to EMV in the U.S., which is becoming increasingly Balkanized as the only major global region not moving to the more-secure chip-and-PIN technology. But a Visa Inc. executive is among experts suggesting that, though issuers, acquirers and merchants may be resisting the shift for a variety of reasons, EMV technology itself is not the biggest obstacle preventing the U.S. from adopting the standard.