Data and information management

Online fraud is on the increase, but the good news is emerging technology can protect digital identities.

The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that 19 private-sector proposals are now under review by nearly 500 members of two separate task forces, one of which was established to chart a path toward a faster payment system, and the other focused on payment system security.

Mastercard is introducing Identity Check Mobile, the app that allows customers to verify their identity using a fingerprint scanner or by snapping a selfie, to 12 European markets.

Every merchant knows the saying: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." But perhaps Visa knows.

It's hard to sell a big bank something regardless of the tech company's size. But for early-stage startups with only a handful of employees and a product still under development, the challenge is far greater than for seasoned tech vendors.

EMV chip cards have delivered on their promise to halt counterfeit fraud at the physical point of sale. But for a technology developed long before the invention of e-commerce, mobile wallets and the word "omnichannel," delivering on its promise still feels like falling short.

The private student loan market is dominated by large players, but some community banks are turning to a third-party tech company to help them get in the game.

Mobile wallets are poised to dramatically change the payments landscape, but what is holding them back from seeing more rapid adoption?

The traditional audience for prepaid cards is the underbanked or unbanked, many of whom are excluded from the mainstream financial services system due to their lacking credit histories. Green Dot is nevertheless pursuing this audience with a Platinum Visa secured credit card that requires an upfront cash deposit and carries a raft of fees.

Swift announced Tuesday additional efforts to beef up security on its network, following highly publicized hacks of member banks earlier this year.

Lenders are starting to bring artificial intelligence into their lending processes. Some wonder whether the machines can make rational, unbiased choices.

Visa Inc. is trying a new gambit offset consumers' irritation with hassles surrounding the messy EMV chip-card migration—it's introducing a winsome young woman to console the masses.

Data breaches aren’t going away. What’s also frustrating for those tasked with protecting data is that poor consumer habits regarding online security aren’t going away, either. Weak passwords shared across all online accounts continue, despite ever-growing threats.

Candi Wolff of Citigroup and Anita Eoloff of Wells Fargo are two of the most powerful banking lobbyists in the nation’s capital, but they don’t think the transformation of their once male-dominated field is done, nor do they think everything about the past should be abandoned.

Yahoo says no bank account or card data has been compromised in its massive data breach. Yet hackers could use their ill-gotten personal information about customers to mess with bank accounts.

Consumers using PayPal to complete an e-commerce transaction on a Lenovo laptop computer will be able to use an embedded fingerprint reader instead of a static password.

Financial services IT teams must think like cybercriminals and develop an offensive approach to security at a time when threats are growing in frequency and sophistication.

The U.S. shift to EMV-chip card security hasn't been smooth. Many companies saw the card networks' Oct. 1, 2015 fraud liability shift date as a starting point rather than a deadline, and even the companies that thought they would be unaffected by the EMV transition found themselves dealing with major headaches.

Bashas' Inc., Arizona's largest independent grocery chain, was certain it was prepared for the October 2015 EMV liability shift. After all, it had begun purchasing terminals for all of its 1,400 checkout lanes a year in advance.

Verified by Visa — which typically functioned as a way to improve security by adding a password to the online payment process — is phasing out the use of static passwords. Visa's plan is a chance to improve the standard for authenticating online commerce.