Payment processing

Banks are still debating the use of two-factor authentication for account access, even though hackers are getting more cunning and the tech bellwether Google Inc. just endorsed the extra layer of security.

Green Dot Corp. and banks probably could use each other’s help more than ever.

Until a few years ago, payment card processors and merchant acquirers found it relatively easy to incorporate biannual April and October updates of interchange-rate tables and other mandates from the payment networks into their systems.

The U.S. is closer to EMV readiness than many realize, and it may not cost as much as previously feared, suggests a newly crafted “roadmap” to U.S. adoption of EMV chip-and-PIN technology.

Global Payments Inc. has promoted James R. Hicks to president of its Global Payments Asia Pacific Ltd. unit, where he will oversee the merchant processor’s payment operations in 11 Asian countries, the Atlanta-based company announced Feb. 11.

Cineplex Entertainment, which supports 132 theaters in Canada serving more than 70 million visitors each year, is giving consumers the option to pay for tickets from their PayPal account, the Toronto-based company announced Feb. 11.

MasterCard Worldwide launched a beta version of its developer’s portal early last month, but the card brand has invited only about 1,000 programmers to participate, a MasterCard spokesperson said Feb. 10.

Several credit unions have agreed to offer Bluepoint Solutions’ mobile check-depositing technology to their customers, the vendor announced Feb. 10.

Cardtronics Inc. generated a 371% increase in profits, to $8 million for the fourth quarter from $1.7 million during the same period a year earlier, driven by growing revenue and higher margins, the company announced Feb. 10.

PayPal Inc. is pushing to expand use of mobile-wallet services as it stakes out its turf in the mobile-payments market, executives said Feb. 10 during a presentation at parent eBay Inc.’s analyst and investors day.

Vendors often tout their products in press releases and through other efforts seeking publicity. But sometimes they choose to keep things relatively low key.

Positive fourth-quarter results bode well for Wright Express Corp., whose chief executive tells PaymentsSource the fleet card provider and issuer intends to carry the momentum into the new year.

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers are expected to press the case of credit unions and community banks asking for the Federal Reserve to ease off proposed price restrictions on debit interchange during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee next week.

ATMs, long a valuable resource for cardholders wanting ready access to cash, have become a growing target for crooks who like them for similar reasons, according to a researcher from ACI Worldwide.

The bank unit of Cabela's Inc., an outdoors merchandiser, has renewed a credit card processing agreement with the Atlanta payments company First Data Corp.

Visa Inc. is furthering its e-commerce strategy by buying a payment platform for online games.

Visa Inc. no longer will require merchants outside the U.S. to annually validate their compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard if three-fourths of their transactions comply with the EMV chip-and-PIN standard, the network announced Feb. 9.

Warning lawmakers that the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit-interchange rules likely would thwart national job growth, the American Bankers Association and 55 other state and community banking associations urged members of Congress in a Feb. 8 letter to “intervene immediately” to block the rule’s implementation.

U.S. Bancorp’s Elavon Inc. merchant-processing unit has Class B-certified Hypercom Corp.’s SPOS32 EMV payment software on Hypercom’s T4200 and M4200 payment devices in Canada, the Phoenix-based terminal maker announced Feb. 9.

Payment-processing platform provider Aptys Solutions had added automated clearinghouse functionality to its PayLogics processing platform, the Rockwell, Texas-based company announced Feb. 9.