Payment processing

The introduction of EMV cards didn't significantly slow transaction times at U.S. retailers during the Black Friday shopping event, but there are still many wrinkles to iron out at the point of sale.

The holidays are approaching, and mobile is going to play a bigger role in e-commerce than ever before. Last year, mobile holiday shopping traffic surpassed desktop for the first time and retailers are expecting even higher mobile traffic this year.

ShopKeep's most recent survey of its 20,000 merchant clients shows two mobile payment trends at odds with one another.

There is a whopping $630.5 billion bonanza of holiday shopping projected to occur this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation. Though if retailers aren't ready to accept chip cards and mobile transactions, they could miss out.

Despite many merchants' resistance to the EMV migration in the U.S., the chip-card technology can become more appetizing when it is baked into another item on the terminal maker's menu.

Merchants have long known card network rules permit them to charge a different price for accepting cash versus cards, but outside of gasoline retailers, most merchants haven’t done much about it.

First Data and NCR Corp. are flexing their scale muscles in an agreement that brings the technology strength of both companies to the grocery, petroleum and convenience store industries and expands NCR's ATM footprint.

Within less than 12 hours, LoanDepot Inc., a fast-growing mortgage lender, aborted its plan to go public and Fitbit Inc., the maker of wearable devices, priced a secondary offering below the previous day’s close.

MasterCard is integrating software developer Cardtek’s HCEXpert solution to enable Near Field Communication-based mobile payments for customers of MasterCard Payment Transaction Services, a unit of MasterCard.

Western Union has named Elizabeth Chambers as the company’s chief strategy and product officer.

Electronic payments company PAX Technology has become the main supplier of point of sale terminals for Russia's Sberbank.

Electronic payments technology provider Verifone has entered into an agreement to buy Payment as a Service provider InterCard AG.

As more merchants and consumers adopt mobile payments, many cybersecurity experts warn a boost in mobile payment-related breaches will result, though in some cases providers are sacrificing vulnerability for easier use and more adoption.

Airbnb is integrating with American Express to enable cardholders to sign up for the short-term rental platform and using its services.

Seamless Distribution AB shares advanced after the Swedish payment-technology provider announced a plan split off its secure mobile-transactions business.

To improve its commerce and restaurant management offerings, Heartland Payment Systems has acquired Digital Dining, a provider of software that enables handheld point of sale devices to interact with conventional fixed terminals.

American Express Co. and merchants fighting the company over rules governing credit-card fees are headed back to the negotiating table.

MasterCard is talking to Merchant Customer Exchange executives about what role the card brand could play in the retailers' CurrentC mobile wallet, but the card brand insists it is just an interested observer in the merchant mobile wallet venture.

American Express Co., bracing for a decline in profit after the loss of a key retail partner, made a series of organizational changes including combining U.S. and international units and said that consumer product head Josh Silverman is leaving the firm.

The alliance between JPMorgan Chase and the Merchant Customer Exchange represents more than an olive branch between two industries that have typically been at war over fee revenue — it's a result of a years-long transformation in how Chase approaches its relationships with the retail sector.