Analytics

MasterCard's decision to do a 500-person trial of facial recognition for payment authentication next month may seem like a bold move in security, but it's really taking aim at friction.

With the U.S. EMV migration deadline looming and merchants urged to add encryption and tokenization as well, Transaction Network Services sees an opportunity in helping clients manage all of this technology.

Lloyds Bank is exploring a way to use Near Field Communication to authenticate shoppers, but in a twist, it is using the mobile phones to receive – rather than send – the NFC signal.

Banks are particularly interested in fingerprint biometrics right now, likely due to the popularity of Apple’s Touch ID, which is used in Apple Pay.

With the looming liability shift in the United States, EMV is on every payment card issuer’s mind, though with the challenge comes opportunities, such as bolstering customer relationships.

Since the growth of online retail, payments providers and acquirers have wrestled with the ethical questions and the risks surrounding gun sales, marijuana shops, pornography sites and other businesses that carry a stigma.

The migration to EMV-chip cards is proceeding at a slow crawl at many merchants. But in the restaurant industry in particular, many proprietors see it as an unnecessary ingredient.

As the United States begins its efforts to reduce credit card fraud by transitioning to EMV, another type of card—the online gift card—could see its fraud risk skyrocket.

When mom-and-pop merchants need a loan, they are increasingly turning to some big names in the payments business, which are quickly becoming noteworthy players in small-business lending.

Green Dot's MoneyPak reload cards might be defunct in the real world, but they live on at Litchfield Penitentiary, the fictional setting of Netflix's "Orange Is the New Black."