ISO & Agent

More than a year after leaving a top post at iPayment Inc., Philip Ragona is returning to serve the payments processor with new responsibilities.

Uber and other digital commerce plays are drawing attention to online fraud and innovation. Payment companies and merchants will need to adjust to meet the pace of change in the year ahead.

A 2018 deadline to automate government payments is fast approaching. Only with a mix of technology solutions and cooperation among agencies can that deadline be met.

Prior to the October 2015 EMV chip-card liability shift in the U.S., various merchant groups expressed concerns about factors that would keep them from meeting that deadline — some of which remain beyond their control.

Wells Fargo's innovation group has appointed Peggy Mangot for the newly created position of senior vice president of its design and delivery leadership team.

Traditional checking hasn't faded nearly as fast as original predictions at the dawn of online banking. Checks will remain a major part of payments, though there are some signs of an eventual decline.

China isn't living up to promises to open its card market, a shortcoming the incoming Trump administration should remember when forging trade policies.

The EMV migration, online marketplaces and e-banking are giving crooks lots of places to commit fraud. Security strategy has to be more dynamic to keep up.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s role in mobile payments is getting more interesting.

Consumers want to feel mobile wallets are secure and widely accessible before substantial adoption is possible.

Data breaches have been proliferating over the past couple of years, but there's new technology out of the 'bot' and analytics worlds that can help.

Payment processors have eyed the gambling industry as a just-out-of-reach gold mine for the past few years, especially with the expansion of online and mobile gaming, but the warning signs have always been very large.

Consumers, particularly younger people, are placing an importance on being able to obtain a plastic card in a branch and use it right away.

As regulators open the door to payment startups and other fintech firms applying for bank charters, what has already been a long journey to this point is only going to get more intense.

Fraud involving third parties and advance fees can be vexing for merchants. But doing lots of homework can mitigate the threat.

The migration has been slow, but COOP Financial Services says there's momentum for adoption and usage. There are also signs that card fraud risk is improving.

The Federal Reserve and Federal Trade Commission investigated Visa for debit practices, a move that enhances competition in the marketplace for merchants.

Merchant acquirers say the industry has worked over the course of decades to improve its ethics. But some acquirers report that deceptive practices and dubious tactics still exist, and that the card brands could do a better job at enforcing their own rules.

Alipay's fast growth is partly attributed to the huge size of the Chinese market, but it also deploys strategies that can serve as an example for mobile wallets in other parts of the world.

Montreal-based Pivotal Payments, which supplies all sizes of businesses with payment processing services, has named Edward Garcia to the new post of chief operating officer.