Point-of-sale

When EMV came to market in Europe in the 1990s, it entered a world with a much less robust communications infrastructure than what the U.S. has today. So, following the launch of EMV in the U.S., Visa decided it was time to break some old habits.

Visa insists that EMV chip card transactions take no longer to process than magstripe transactions do, but it is aware that many consumers disagree.

Nearly 60% of merchants using ShopKeep's tablet-based mobile point of sale software predict that half of consumers will be using mobile payments as a primary payment form by 2018.

Verifone is hoping to beat the payments disruptors at their own game, introducing a mobile point of sale terminal for quick-service businesses, small retail shops and cafés that integrates payments with other consumer services.

More than two-thirds of all U.S.-issued MasterCard consumer credit cards are now chip-enabled and the number of merchants accepting EMV transactions continues to climb, MasterCard said March 31.

The migration to EMV chip cards in the U.S. has hit enough snags that some may wonder if it's better to let someone else smooth things out.

Many moons after the U.S. payment industry adopted a largely chip-and-signature approach to EMV instead of chip-and-PIN security that’s standard elsewhere, rising merchant chargebacks are leading some to question the wisdom of PIN-free payments.

Terminal maker Ingenico Group has named Suzan Denoncourt as its managing director for all aspects of operations in Canada.

As merchants prepared to swap out their aging magstripe terminals for modern EMV card readers, acquirers hoped that this widespread demand for equipment would flood ISOs with revenue. But instead, some are finding EMV simply added to their expenses.

Verifone's presence in the mobile point of sale market is as old as Square's, but it has had a bit more trouble reaching Square's market. This year, Verifone's strategy will be to move the goalpost — and to chop it up into smaller segments.