Tokenization

A "smart" token is a regular token on steroids, transmitting the information needed to authorize the transaction together, including enhanced counterpart identity, transaction and invoicing data, writes Marten Nelson, vice president and co-founder of Token.

As the digital age reduces the wear on physical cards, how is it that some consumers are requesting new cards more frequently?

Some merchants, issuers and processors are concerned that the card brands will tout their "ownership" of payment card prefixes as a basis for requesting that mobile transactions on their cards be routed to their networks and screened through tokenization services they provide.

The plastic card is an aging tool in payments, but there's still room for innovation in its design and features. Here are a few new concepts that favor technology and style as differentiators.

The battle over screen scraping seems to be subsiding into a series of agreements between banks and fintechs using open APIs.

The bank’s clients now have a simpler alternative for logging in to treasury management and other commercial accounts, part an effort by bankers to offer business customers more convenient high-tech services that are still secure.

Cashless payments provider SIX Payment Services has launched a virtual PayLife credit card for making mobile payments in Austria.

As payments become "invisible," easier execution will also make transactions more safe and power marketing programs

As long as there has been mobile commerce, there have been calls for different stakeholders to share competitive turf in the name of universal acceptance.

Mobile payment initiatives have largely failed because they focus on changing transactions instead of changing the way consumers and merchants engage with each other, according to Carta Worldwide, which touts new tokens as a way to reverse that.

Much like rival Mastercard, which recently took its Decision Intelligence AI product out of pilot, Visa wants to make sure that it isn't turning away legitimate customers when it finds signs of potential fraud.

Visa's growth beyond plastic cards relies heavily on tokenization, a strategy that should get a major boost from its planned acquisition of CardinalCommerce.

Longtime Amex exec Alfred F. Kelly Jr. will be taking over as Visa CEO at a time when much is at stake for the global card network.