Economy

Five years ago, Starbucks was primarily a coffee company. Today, it's a pioneer in mobile payments technology with a significant portion of its U.S. transactions made using its smartphone app. And according to the company's CEO, this is only the beginning.

Acquirers could find themselves looking a lot like marketing firms in the near future.

ISOs and agents should offer consultative services, back-office optimization and fraud-screening products, according to a speaker at the Northeast Acquirers Association show.

Payline Data wants to add smaller businesses to its roster of merchant services clients, and figures "no swipe" mobile payments is good way to get in the door.

Benjamin Lawsky, New York's top financial regulator, rarely sounds ambivalent. But when the topic is something as unprecedented and complex as Bitcoin, the big questions appear to give him pause.

Acquirers could find themselves looking a lot like marketing firms in the near future, according to speakers at the Northeast Acquirers Association 2014 Winter Seminar and Outing.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is changing his responsibilities to place a greater emphasis on mobile payments and other digital initiatives.

Unresolved questions about debit cards may stall the transition to EMV chip cards in the United States, industry experts say.

Mobile carriers are becoming more heavily involved in the payments world. Many are spearheading tests and full deployments of mobile wallets throughout the world, and some like T-Mobile are launching prepaid cards as well.

Nearly 10 million Starbucks customers use its mobile app to make payments, totaling close to 5 million mobile payments a week, the company reports.

T-Mobile's bid to provide basic checking services to its mobile phone customers is the latest signal that banks are losing the low end of the consumer market.

ISOs are scrambling to set themselves apart in a price-oriented business, but most are failing to dazzle merchants. In fact, about a fourth of clients don’t know their ISO’s name.

T-Mobile is launching a prepaid card, aiming to use mobile account access as a selling point to attract underbanked consumers.

Merchant Warehouse is closing more deals, raising morale and convincing employees and contractors not to move on to other companies—all with the help of the Certified Payments Professional credential.

As with any new technology, mobile wallets must earn the trust of the consumers and merchants who would use them. Many mobile payment apps may attempt to beef up security with password and PIN protection, but a few have had their security scrutinized very publicly.

BBVA Compass is testing a new drive-through concept that includes units that stream video so car-bound customers can communicate with tellers. It's the latest example of how banks are rethinking physical and digital channels.

Starbucks is reportedly storing mobile app users' passwords in a manner that makes them accessible to a hacker with access to a user's phone, creating potential security risks that could erode consumer confidence in mobile payments.

A tour of PayPal's innovation showroom offers a glimpse of the company's latest technology, how PayPal is tying together e-commerce channels, and how it intends to dominate the mobile wallet the way it has online payments.

Receipts, typically a scrap of paper many shoppers throw away, can be easily reimagined as a tool to improve customer engagement, says Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square.

A super ISO is combining transaction services, electronic marketing and tablet technology to create a compelling “bundle” for ISOs and agents to sell.