Cards

Dickie Brennan is a New Orleans staple, a local business owner whose family has operated restaurants in the Crescent City for decades. A protégé of legendary chef Paul Prudhomme, Brennan is also an early adopter of a new mobile technology he hopes will change the way people dine out.

MasterCard has agreed to purchase Provus Billisim Hizmetleri A.S. (Provus), a Turkish payment technology and processing company.

E-Commerce sales on the Visa network in the U.S. surpassed $1 billion 188 times during the first nine months of the 2013 (out of 273 total days), a 16% increase in volume over the same period last year, the card network reports.

Less than two months after launching Evolve Money for cash-paying consumers to pay and track bills online or through a smartphone, PreCash Inc. has its first wireless carrier supporting the app.

Groupon's strategy in mobile payments relies heavily on the feedback it gets from its merchants. The company's latest update to the Breadcrumb POS mobile payment app allows those merchants to get similar knowledge about their own customers' needs.

Eataly, an international Italian food seller, will offer cooking lessons, tours, recipes signed by famous Italian chefs, and other perks to MasterCard customers.

Merchants are often wary of investing in a new point of sale terminal when even newer technology may be just around the corner. Spire Payments aims to ease their concerns by offering a developer-friendly system designed to adapt quickly.

Two payments industry veterans have come up with a way to make mobile phones and terminals communicate wirelessly without a conventional wireless or Near Field Communication signal.

Walgreen Co.'s new Balance Financial Prepaid MasterCard will be at the core of a series of financial services the retailer plans to offer over the next few months.

MasterCard and CB Bank will offer prepaid travel cards to Myanmar residents for international travel.

In its digital payments strategy, American Express is placing more bets on cash. The card network plans to add a free cash reload option for its Serve prepaid digital wallet, reducing its reliance on Green Dot's MoneyPak reload cards. Amex is also adding several features that broaden the functions of the Serve account, and plans a $1 monthly fee that can be waived with direct deposits.

Arroweye Solutions is launching an EMV chip-card customization platform called EMV On-Demand.

While now may not be the right time to convert card bases to EMV, CUs should be building a roadmap for how they will make the switch.

The Republic of Kenya is among the latest countries to make the move to EMV-chip cards, as its local banks and processors mount an ambitious campaign to transition the smart-card standard by early next year in a move to combat fast-rising fraud.

To adapt to changes in the payments industry, Ceridian, a Minneapolis-based human resources, payroll and payment card company, has split its payments business from its human capital management unit.

Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. don’t infringe a patent owned by SmartMetric Inc., a company that had sought as much as $13.4 billion for alleged use of its technology in “smart” debit and credit cards.

MasterCard is working with Parkeon, a parking management company, to enable merchants to deliver offers and loyalty programs to motorists while they are parking their cars.

Maria Rueda, Heartland Payment Systems' chief financial officer, submitted her resignation on Sept. 25, according to an 8-K filing on Oct. 1.

The payments industry has a significant security challenge on its hands as too many consumers become "chronic oversharers" of their personal and payment card data, says Ellen Richey, chief enterprise risk officer for Visa Inc.

Cardtronics' subsidiary Cardtronics USA has purchased the ATM assets from CGI, adding 1,000 merchant-owned ATMs to Cardtronics' U.S. fleet.