POS and Retail

Versatile, high-tech digital gift card sales are going strong for this year’s holiday season, but in the latest sign that plastic cards many never die, eBay has partnered with gift card giant InComm to sell traditional gift cards online that will take up to 10 days to arrive by mail.

Dealing with late and missed payments from creditors is a chronic complaint of small businesses, who are often stretched too thin to chase down money owed to them. But a U.K.-based startup aims to attack that problem with YayPay, an automated invoicing platform with a bill-collections feature that launched this week in the U.S.

Exciting growth opportunities exist for small and medium businesses taking advantage of the ever-increasing holiday shopping season. However, amidst this positive backdrop, lurks the negative threat posed by hackers and cyber criminals that prey on holiday shoppers and businesses.

U.S. transactions processor Global Payments Inc. is in talks to buy smaller rival Heartland Payment Systems Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Even though Walmart has been a key member and driving force behind the Merchant Customer Exchange joint venture to establish a new mobile wallet, the retailer's addition of Walmart Pay to its mobile app is consistent with strategy, and will lead to a wave of individual bank and retailer initiatives.

Boku had to stay mum last week about its involvement in powering Apple Inc.'s carrier billing option in Russia, but there is no such gag order this week regarding the company's partnership with Microsoft.

One of the leaders of the retailer-driven Merchant Customer Exchange mobile payment system, Walmart is stepping out with its own alternative to Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay.

A typical word cloud from the payment community might be heavily weighted like this - Loop, Apple, bitcoin, e-gifts, Near Field Communication, contactless, mobile wallets, tokenization, and digital encryption.

JPMorgan Chase has shuffled three top executives in credit cards, mortgages and mortgage servicing.

Visa Inc. has started marketing what’s poised to be one of the biggest bond offerings of the year to finance its 21.2 billion euro ($23.3 billion) takeover of Visa Europe Ltd.

The holy grail for any business is sustainable competitive advantage. In the fast-moving payments market, where we are seeing the challenge of near-constant technology-led change, this can appear both elusive and far-fetched.

ACI Worldwide will provide the payments framework to allow international money transfer provider TransferWise to add more services to its network.

American Express’ small merchant card acceptance has been generally low, though that performance could improve through a partnership with Moneris, Canada’s largest acquirer.

SunTrust Banks Inc. introduced enhanced rewards and bonuses with three new credit cards for customers about seven weeks after the October EMV liability shift, gaining some headwind with the added security of chip cards and an offer of free FICO score reporting.

A recent column by Penny Crosman on whether cards with newer chip technology should be paired with a signature or PIN, for added security, came down squarely on the side of using PINs. But the article overlooked a key fact in the debate: neither is the most important defense against fraud. It’s the chip that matters.

As wearable computing transitions from fantasy to fashion, developers are starting to consider the distinct risks that arise when payments migrate away from smartphones.

Competition for commercial clients is fierce, so banks are on the hunt for ways to keep their customers happy.

Merchant cash advance (MCA) is a common form of alternative lending that many ISOs and agents offer to supplement their income.

Verifone has appointed former Oracle executive Christophe Job as a senior vice-president and chief technology officer in charge of global solutions delivery.

Weighed down by regulation and besieged by technology companies on nearly every front, traditional banks have been slow or unable to react to the recent surge in fintech innovation. While the payments battle has primarily taken place on the consumer side, a similar scenario may soon unfold in another major segment of their operation: business banking.