Data and information management

Ever since the Target data breach made national headlines late last year, customers at City Bank Texas in Lubbock have been deactivating and reactivating their debit cards with much greater frequency.

Security can be difficult to improve at gas stations because payment hardware is built into the pumps, making it costly and difficult to upgrade. First Data and VeriFone are teaming up to overcome this challenge.

Wells Fargo is expanding its commercial card portfolio to Europe with the launch of a European Commercial Card.

The Target data breach has sparked more awareness of card security issues, but nearly 90% of U.S. consumers responding to a Phoenix Marketing International survey don't know much about the EMV-chip cards Target and others are adopting to deter counterfeiting.

When mainstream banks reacted to Target's holiday-season breach by reissuing cards, their biggest worry was active accounts. But for a prepaid card issuer like Green Dot, the inactive cards on retailers' shelves were also a significant concern.

WEX's conversion of ExxonMobil's Esso European card business is progressing, as the corporate payments company also extended its work with ExxonMobil to include Asia and South Pacific markets.

Spreedly is launching a vaulting service that allows e-commerce merchants to manage payments without using a third-party gateway provider to authorize online transactions or handle related tasks such as data security.

VeriFone Systems and First Data are launching a solution that addresses payment security at gas stations and convenience stores.

Equifax is working with the mobile payments company Zumigo to jointly develop fraud prevention software.

Target Corp.'s choice to work with MasterCard Inc. for chip-and-PIN credit and debit cards next year makes a strong statement about payment security.

Target Corp. took two big steps to put the holiday data-breach nightmare behind it today.

WePay is adding application programming interface (API) capabilities to its risk management product, Veda, in an effort to streamline the way WePay's clients enroll new customers and handle transactions.

The U.S. is roughly two years into its migration to chip payments, but in the last few months I have seen the tide turn and this migration start to really pick up speed. But before I talk about where we are now, it’s important to understand where we have been and how we have arrived here.

The Justice Department is grabbing the spotlight with Operation Choke Point, a controversial investigation that's drawing U.S. banks deeper into the fight against consumer fraud. But below the radar, another federal agency is tiptoeing in the same direction, and again drawing stiff opposition from the banking industry.

Swift, the financial messaging service, has launched a new version of its Bankers World Online directory, which includes added information to aid international payments.

To improve the chances that consumers will value a particular issuer's card out of the many in their wallets, that issuer must use all of the data at its disposal to make the card experience personal, bankers say.

Facebook knows that if it misuses consumer data, it will scare its users off. But the social network also knows that by keeping consumers aware of what it is doing and giving them a chance to opt out, it can fundamentally change the way advertisers such as card issuers do business.

According to the Millennial Disruption Index, millennials believe payments innovation will come from outside their bank, with nearly half showing more confidence in what startups and technology companies add to payments than what their banks do. This presents a challenge and an opportunity for financial institutions moving forward.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. will lose market share in Russia after they blocked some transactions because of U.S. sanctions on individuals and banks.

As state regulators take more interest in Bitcoin, third-party vendors are looking to apply the expertise they built in other markets to digital currency. One such vendor, Strevus, has a background in securitization, which is another volatile and risky market.