If there is anyone reading this who questions the market for mobile payments (especially micro-payments, those for amounts of $10 or less) in the United States, I invite them to revisit the successes fundraising organizations had collecting donations in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti last month. I did it. I made my first mobile payment. Actually, I did it twice. At least 10 other folks I know did it too. And the real shocker is that none of these payments involved banks.

read more

Acquiring solutions provider Total Systems Services Inc. (TSYS) released what it calls the "hybrid card." The product allows consumers to switch between a credit line and one or more debit accounts on a single card. According to Sarah Hartman, Senior Director, Payment Solutions for TSYS, the offering is an extension of the company's existing credit card product. It remains essentially a credit card – it contains a specified line of credit and posts payments initially as credit purchases – except that consumers can connect it, instantly and without a third party provider, to their checking accounts for specified transactions.

read more

Researchers at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, said they've found a substantial security flaw in the Europay/MasterCard/Visa (EMV) chip and PIN payment system that might underlie numerous European fraud cases. EMV is often cited as the world's gold standard for safeguarding consumer data. In their report, Chip and PIN is Broken, researchers Steven J. Murdoch, Saar Drimer, Ross Anderson and Mike Bond describe how they devised a "man-in-the-middle attack" to foil payment acceptance terminals.

read more

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. took a major step toward closing the book on its 2008 data breach by reaching an agreement with the vast majority of Visa Inc.'s issuing banks affected by the event. According to a joint media statement issued by the two companies, 97 percent of the affected banks accepted a $60 million settlement, well above the 80 percent figure Visa and Heartland had agreed on as a minimum for settling.

read more

A recent proposal by President Barack Obama to revitalize America's languishing small-business sector through community bank loans could provide a boost to payment institutions, industry observers said. Obama's plan would allocate $30 billion in federal funds – using money repaid by large banks that received federal money from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Fund (TARP) created in 2009 – to banks nationwide with less than $10 billion in assets, with a built-in incentive for loaning that money to small businesses. Under that criterion, more than 8,000 U.S. banks would be eligible to receive loans.

read more

On Feb. 10, 2010, Javelin Strategy and Research released the results of its sixth annual 2010 Identity Fraud Survey. This year's study, which polled over 29,000 consumer victims of fraud (including some small and mid-sized business owners), revealed that fraud is on the rise, but so are the preventative efforts of financial institutions and consumers alike who are working together to safeguard personal information from savvy cyber thieves. According to James Van Dyke, founder and President of Javelin Research, identity fraud requires a level of partnership that has up to now been lacking in financial services. "ID fraud crimes uniquely target both consumers (cardholders) and providers (issuers, processors and acquirers) because identity criminals impersonate cardholders to extract money from consumers, businesses and all manner of payments industry companies," he said.

read more

According to a study published in February 2010 by analytics firm Capital Access Network Inc., brick-and-mortar retail stores and restaurants experienced a sales decline in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. However, CAN's Q4 2009 Small Business Credit Report found the rate of decline decreased from the third quarter of 2009. This indicates that a two-year trend of accelerating sales volume declines may be reversing.

read more

The financial results are in for the card brands: transaction volume and net income continue to increase for Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and American Express Co. Big revenue contributors included cross-border volume growth (MasterCard); currency fluctuations driven by the movement of the euro relative to the dollar (AmEx); and data processing and international transaction revenues (Visa).

read more

To clarify complexities regarding Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) compliance, security solutions provider Trustwave and the Electronic Transactions Association hosted a webinar on Jan. 26, 2010. Entitled PCI DSS Expert Panel: Common Questions Answered, it addressed the concerns of payment professionals and merchants. The webinar's panel of Trustwave experts included Neel Blair, Senior Information Security Consultant; Kevin Mott, Enterprise Sales Engineer; and Colin Sheppard, Incident Response Practice Manager. The colleagues offered in-depth solutions to issues pertaining to compliance, security and incident response.

read more

The Bank Administration Institute is devoted to educating and training payment professionals and banking executives on the latest issues in financial services. BAI is designed to enable professionals to develop business models and strategies that will help them stay innovative in an ever-evolving payment landscape. According to Debbie Bianucci, BAI's Chief Executive Officer, the company is focused on providing high-quality, relevant information, research and education on issues crucial to the retail banking and payment sectors' continued growth.

read more