Economy

There’s a consensus in the acquiring industry that long-awaited changes in payments technology are bound to take place. But how and when will those changes will occur?

Merchants are still using pedestrian passwords that crooks can easily break, security company Trustwave has found.

Braintree and PayPal are testing an integrated mobile payments feature, delivering on the company's promise to integrate technology from Braintree's Venmo unit.

Square is under pressure to adapt to the onslaught of competition from the likes of Amazon, PayPal, Groupon and Fiserv, all of which have applied their own spin to the mobile card reader concept. Square has recently made a number of moves to improve its offerings and its image.

As banks flee the deposit advance business, startups are offering services that let consumers name their payday and collect what they have earned up to that point, regardless of the day of the week.

Now’s the time for ISOs and agents to convince mom-and-pop merchants to adopt loyalty schemes, experts say.

Global Payments has agreed to enable its clients to accept digital currency in a move that may attract international shoppers to brick-and-mortar merchants.

Amazon.com Inc. has launched a Square-like mobile card reader called Amazon Local Register, charging early adopters just 1.75% per swipe until the end of 2015.

Square Appointments, the company's latest fee-based product, is the first in its lineup that can be used by merchants who do not also use Square to accept payments.

As consumers warm to the idea of using their phones to make payments and manage accounts, they are flocking to merchant apps to do so. Instead of using one unified wallet, a shopper's phone may be stuffed with any of these payment-capable programs.

Wearable computing is suddenly in style. Only a few banks and payment companies offer wristbands, smartwatch apps or Google Glass technology, but those that do are getting valuable feedback from consumers.

ISOs and agents can create a profit center by getting the word out to merchants about the need for tokenization.

Brick-and-mortar merchants want POS systems packed with software that helps manage the entire business on the same device they use to accept payments.

Walt Disney Co.'s experiment in payment-capable wearables can probably be declared a success, with the company reporting that about half of Walt Disney World guests sport MagicBands.

MasterCard is putting its digital payment efforts in the spotlight. The Purchase, N.Y. card network is also adding to the number of non-payment services it offers to digitally focused companies.

If Capital One can lure a highly regarded expert like Dan Makoski from Google to head up the bank's payment technology development, it stands to reason other banks would do the same. Maybe. But it won't be easy, experts say.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has scuttled a list of merchant categories that it said warranted heightened attention from processors.