POS and Retail

An ATM services provider sums up the situation this way: “Don’t be discouraged. There is still ample opportunity within the ATM industry.”

With Canada being one of the world’s more developed contactless-payments markets in terms of cards issued, more merchants there are starting to accept the tap-and-go transactions, the latest being 1,400 McDonald’s restaurants, which will do so starting this summer.

Bankers know NCR Corp. for its high-tech ATMs, video teller machines and other branch gizmos. But the Duluth, Ga.-based vendor also is a big supplier of point-of-sale software for retailers and other businesses.

First it was free checking. Then it was spending rewards. Are decoupled-debit cards the next casualty of the Durbin amendment?

Cashiers now may activate entire packs of cards at once instead of swiping each card individually under a service First Data announced July 11.

Payments consumers make to health care providers will soar by more than 40% over the next three years, creating a glut of opportunities for direct-billing service vendors, according to a new Aite Group report.

PayPal revolutionized how consumers pay for goods online. It's not about to be usurped by the mobile payments movement.

After months of fretting, ISOs, agents and processors are viewing the upcoming cap on debit card interchange fees as a golden opportunity to increase margins, boost revenue and gain market share.

Bank of Ireland is rolling out what it claims is the first contactless Visa debit card from an Irish bank.

In a move aimed at significantly expanding its card-brands’ acceptance in Europe, Discover Financial Services has forged a processing and merchant-acquiring agreement with First Data Corp. for international operations, a Discover executive tells PaymentsSource.

As a growing number of United Kingdom-based merchants adopt contactless payment technology as part of a broad regional effort leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games, specific retailers are seeing the technology’s benefits.

A new social-networking site not only offers independent sales organizations and agents an array of opportunities to boost revenue and earnings but also controls a pool of cash available to the industry as loans, backers claim.

Western Union Co. has struck a deal that will make it a competitor, but also a potential partner, for banks trying to capture a bigger chunk of the business payments market.

Online and mobile-payment startup Dwolla Corp. has been building a payment network called Grid that company executives believe to be more secure than MasterCard Worldwide’s and Visa Inc.’s card networks.

In its first major play to connect its mobile-payments service with social media, Starbucks Coffee Co. on June 30 unveiled a mobile-payment application it developed in-house that consolidates the features of previous apps with links to enable users to send Starbucks gift cards via Facebook.

States’ efforts to rein in fly-by-night companies are starting to have an effect on some payments startups’ operations.

The marketplace is beginning to take shape for mobile card readers with the June 29 disclosure that VeriFone Systems Inc. plans to introduce a card-reading accessory for tablet computers this year.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday suggested raising the debit interchange fee cap to 21 cents per transaction, but it gave banks a little bit of leeway to charge even more if they meet certain fraud prevention standards.

VeriFone Systems Inc. continues to gain momentum in the contactless-terminal market for taxis is the Asia-Pacific region, signing a contract to supply 15,600 contactless payment terminals to the largest taxi fleet in Singapore.

Yet another mobile-commerce venture is being formed, and this one could have some staying power, according to an analyst familiar with the deal.