Retailers

Visa Inc. plans to accelerate the U.S. migration to EMV contact and contactless chip technology, the card brand announced Aug. 9.

The private-equity firm buying Hypercom Corp.’s U.S. payment-terminal business says it has no plans to make any disruptive changes.

When the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council was formed five years ago to establish industry standards, General Manager Bob Russo figured about 50 to 60 merchants, associations or banks would participate. He was in for a surprise.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council has set Aug. 29 as its deadline for gathering suggestions from participating organizations for security compliance topics that need further study.

Online Resources Corp.'s second-quarter revenue grew 5.4% year-over-year, to $38.3 million, from higher sales of e-commerce services.

VeriFone Systems Inc. on Aug. 4 finished its purchase of rival terminal maker Hypercom Corp. after it reached a settlement with the Justice Department to sell Hypercom’s U.S. terminal business to the private-equity firm Gores Group LLC.

Chris Olson doesn't count himself among EMV's detractors or evangelists. "It's a lot like Beta or VHS, you don't really know how it's going to turn out," says Fremont Bank's COO on the question of whether EMV cards (debit or credit cards embedded with a computer chip that meets the standard named for creators Europay, MasterCard and Visa), magnetic stripe cards or some other kind of point-of-sale plastic will dominate the U.S. card market in the future.

Though First Data Corp.’s second-quarter earnings show losses tied to debt service from a 2007 takeover by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., company executives pointed to positive revenue numbers and strong liquidity during an Aug. 3 conference call with analysts.

Visa Inc. fired the first shot in the post-Durbin pricing war, but MasterCard Worldwide is not ready to pull the trigger, at least not yet.

Touting heavier consumer and commercial card-spending as the economy gradually improves, MasterCard Worldwide on Aug. 3 said its second-quarter purchase volume showed healthy increases in all worldwide regions, with its biggest gains in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Increases in debit-network fees and favorable changes in foreign currency fueled a 5.4% increase in second-quarter revenue for First Data Corp., to $2.75 billion from $2.61 billion a year ago, the company reported Aug. 3.

Higher spending on its credit and debit cards boosted MasterCard Inc.’s second-quarter net revenue by 21.4% from a year earlier.

For a large international operation such as RBS' wholesale banking unit, drawing a mobile roadmap means scaling the knowledge curve posed by fast-developing new devices and technology to find the best match between innovation and client demand.

T-Mobile USA Inc. is the latest wireless carrier to allow its subscribers to charge purchases of online games, songs and videos to their phone bills.

Debit card issuers scrambling to ensure they have appropriate fraud-protection strategies in place before new debit-interchange rates kick in Oct. 1 are likely to confront some dilemmas, some analysts suggest.

The electronic-payments industry has come under unprecedented government scrutiny in the past 18 months, and it is unlikely to let up any time soon, contends a top official from the Electronic Transactions Association.

With 2.6 billion China UnionPay cardholders and 1.2 million Elavon Global Acquiring Solutions merchants worldwide, the math simply added up for an agreement that would enable Elavon merchants to accept UnionPay cards, an Elavon executive says.

One of the most significant challenges to widespread adoption of Near Field Communication-enabled mobile payments has been determining how the card brands, issuers, mobile operators and handset manufacturers will divvy up transaction revenues.

To help distribute its Serve digital payment and wallet service, American Express Co. on Aug. 1 announced a deal in which Verizon Wireless will integrate the platform into many of its mobile phones and tablets.

After years of discussion, the acquiring industry is preparing to offer a credentialing system that proponents say will certify a professional’s mastery of a defined standard of practice and “quantify expertise.”