POS and Retail

While unused credit largely hasn't been addressed in the U.S., in six countries—Brazil, Turkey, Argentina, Greece, Mexico and Israel—optimizing unused credit is enabling interest-free credit-card based installment plans.

Walgreens' vision for creating a patient-centered pharmacy combines mobile health care, digital health technologies and its Balance Rewards prepaid and loyalty system.

While Apple's taking an early incremental approach to Las Vegas, terminal manufacturer Ingenico is very bullish on the technology picking up steam with the gaming industry and its patrons.

"Big data" has been all the rage in the payments industry in recent years. While the hype seems to have subsided a bit, that might be because the most dedicated data-using merchants have put their heads down to focus on sifting through the data to investigate fraud.

With more patients paying part or all of their health care expenses directly, health care providers find themselves thrust into the world of consumer payments and collections, where providers face different costs, risks and expectations than they did working primarily with insurance companies.

Beacons—those little Bluetooth mechanisms stores use to beam ads to shoppers' phones—may someday play a critical role in payments. But the technology is still years away from being a practical alternative to cards and NFC-based mobile wallets.

Square Inc. says it has received more funding for its Square Capital program, which grants loans to Square merchants based on their transaction history.

For many industries, the introduction of open standards has been a key driver for innovation. The rapid evolution of the internet and online services offer a vivid example of the degree to which open standards can enable immense innovation and growth.

Global Payments will launch the OptBlue program in Canada in early summer, the first acquirer/processor to use the American Express program to adjust Amex card pricing for Canadian merchants.

As more U.S. banks issue EMV-chip credit and debit cards, consumer education remains a challenge, particularly if consumers overlook the paper inserts that come with their new cards.

Latin America is becoming a must-have market for mobile payments, replete with fast growing m-commerce adoption and card network investment.

Paytm, a major mobile wallet in India with backing from China's Alibaba, is gaining acceptance through restaurants like Domino's and setting the foundation for a larger Alibaba presence in the country.

The good news is that EMV is very effective at preventing the use of counterfeit credit/debit cards at the point of sale (POS), commonly referred to as card-present (CP) fraud.

NCR Corp. has updated its transaction processing solution, Authentic, with features such as a browser-based point of sale and card management interface.

Few businesses accept cards for B2B transactions, dreading an interchange charge of 2% to 5% on sales that total thousands of dollars. But there are instances where the benefits of using cards outweigh the cost.

Western Union Co. said it’s not in talks to acquire smaller rival MoneyGram International Inc.

Western Union Co. is in early-stage talks to acquire smaller rival MoneyGram International Inc., people with knowledge of the matter said, as both companies contend with stiff competition from upstart money-transfer companies.

Instant card issuance builds immediate value in the eyes of the consumer, and also helps them feel like a valued customer, potentially increasing their card usage rate and extending the longevity of the business relationship.

Kwik Chek Food Stores' new technology for updating gas prices at the pump also pushes those price changes to motorists using its mobile payment app, a feature that gets customers engaged with the retailer long before they pull up to the pump.

Home Depot Inc. plans to enable Apple Inc.'s mobile-payment platform at its more than 2,000 stores, making it the largest retailer to accept Apple Pay.