Payments

Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. said Jan. 10 that some unauthorized purchases may have been made with customer cards, the second retailer after Target Corp. to be struck by hackers during the important holiday shopping season.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Credit unions across the nation are moving up their EMV conversion timelines, considering more class action lawsuits against Target Corp. and calling on Congress to create rules requiring greater payment data security from retailers.

Linking loyalty to payment cards, especially through cobranded products, is a relatively new practice that retailers say helps them target offers to their best customers.

BETHPAGE, N.Y. -- By the time many credit unions were first learning about the massive Target Corp. data breach, Bethpage FCU was already moving to alert members and protect the card base.

Ingenico SA's partnership with mobile commerce software provider Starmount will allow the terminal maker to provide U.S. merchants with information needed to complete sales in any part of their stores.

The Washington, D.C. Metro transportation system says it will test new electronic fare equipment after completing a deal with Accenture to replace older systems.

WASHINGTON -- Following Target Corp.'s announcement that its data breach has increased to 70 million accounts, NAFCU and CUNA are stepping up efforts to call for congressional action on data security.

Petrosoft, a business software provider, is offering quick service retailers and their customers new products to streamline the point of sale experience.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Target Corp.'s data breach problem just got bigger.

Telefonica O2 UK Ltd. is shutting down the Near Field Communication-based mobile wallet it launched for consumers in the U.K. nearly three years ago.

PulseWallet, a biometrics payments provider, is again touting its payment and authentication device, but it must overcome a sudden emergence of competitors that is also trying to breathe life into an idea that has had spotty success in the market.

Stripe is the latest payments provider to integrate its technology with Ecwid, a developer of e-commerce tools to add turnkey online stores to websites, blogs and social media pages.

SCVNGR's LevelUp expected merchants would prefer its Interchange Zero pricing for mobile payments, but many clients told the company they would prefer to pay a 2% transaction fee.

Western Union Co. and Atlanta-based SunTrust Bank have launched a global money transfer and bill payment service that will also allow customers to send money to load prepaid cards and pay bills at more than 1,500 bank agent location in the southeastern U.S.

OnPoint Community Credit Union is using person-to-person payments as the foundation of building consumer comfort with mobile as a channel for money movement.

Of all the potential benefits, mobile-driven loyalty is the factor with the greatest potential to drive consumer adoption of mobile payments.

Mercury Payment Systems LLC plans to upgrade its closed-loop gift card system so that any small to mid-size merchant can offer gift, loyalty and reloadable prepaid options to customers in one card.

Seamless has signed an agreement with Visita, a Swedish hospitality industry and employers organization, to use the SEQR mobile payment system.

WASHINGTON -- The significant impact to credit unions from the Target data breach is clear in the number of CUs quickly responding to CUNA's data breach impact survey.

Card reward programs are well past their Sperry & Hutchinson Green Stamps phase, where people redeem their rewards by picking items from a catalog that stays pretty much the same all the time.