03 Feb 17 @ 14:02

Cards and card payment at the point of sale and online showed solid growth rates in most European countries in 2015. This was supported by the roll-out of new technologies,... read more

23 Nov 16 @ 11:33

Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts shows that the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Asia Pacific were the fastest growing regions for payment cards in 2015, with card numbers... read more

28 Sep 16 @ 05:55

The largest UK banks are set for another windfall with the sale of the bank-owned payments company VocaLink to Mastercard for £700 million ($920 million). NEWS OF THE deal came... read more

27 Sep 16 @ 13:30

When bank-account funded payments, real-time payments, mobile and other digital payments are actually the default way to pay in many countries, the term ‘alternative’ seems a misnomer. We examine current... read more

27 Sep 16 @ 13:16

Ten years after the founding of the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), we present a mid-term report on the industry’s data security efforts. As both cyber attacks... read more

03 Aug 16 @ 07:24

MASTERCARD IS FACING a multi-billion pound damages claim for imposing interchange fees that were ultimately borne by UK consumers. The claim, which could reach £19 billion, would be the biggest... read more

03 Aug 16 @ 07:02

Following Britain’s momentous decision to leave the European Union, thoughts must inevitably turn to the potential impact on UK consumer payments. Chris Jones, director, PSE Consulting, provides some early thoughts... read more

05 Apr 16 @ 07:00

Advancements in digital technology continued to shape the payments industry in 2015 as mobile, online and other digital forms of payments moved into the mainstream. From mass transit to gas... read more

05 Apr 16 @ 06:19

With a focus on merchant acquiring, the Merchant Payment Ecosystem (MPE) event in Berlin in February connects all parts of the payment ecosystem. Indeed, the evolving and dynamic nature of... read more

02 Feb 16 @ 10:44

Cards and card payment at the point of sale (POS) and online showed solid growth rates in most European countries in 2014, supported by the roll-out of contactless technology. The... read more

02 Feb 16 @ 10:18

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said that 2015 would be the year of Apple Pay. As it turned out, 2015 was the year of mobile payments initiatives generally as technology... read more

02 Feb 16 @ 10:16

The merchant payment landscape has changed a lot over the last few years. New Payment Service Providers (PSP) have entered the market, new payment schemes have been introduced, smart phones... read more

02 Feb 16 @ 10:15

The European Payments Council (EPC) and Cards Stakeholders Group (CSG), a multi-stakeholder group comprising retailers, vendors, processors, cards schemes, published version 7.1 of its ‘Volume’ in December 2015. First published... read more

01 Oct 15 @ 08:15

A decade ago, debit cards had just overtaken credit cards as American consumers’ most commonly used payment method.  Now, there are almost twice the number of debit card transactions in the... read more

01 Oct 15 @ 08:02

There will always be a place for charity collection boxes at check-out and tin-shakers in the street. But how is card payment technology helping to change charitable giving? And what... read more

01 Oct 15 @ 07:38

New research by RBR shows that the number of payment cards in circulation worldwide increased by 11 percent in 2014 to reach 12 billion, largely driven by strong growth in... read more

30 Jul 15 @ 16:57

Contactless cards have been issued in Australia since 2006 but a major push on the acceptance side only started in the second-half of 2010. The technology is starting to gain... read more

30 Jul 15 @ 16:36

General purpose and private label credit, debit and prepaid cards generated $5,165 trillion in sales in the US last year. This was an 8 percent increase on the $4,768 trillion... read more

30 Jul 15 @ 15:11

MasterCard faces formal antitrust investigations in Europe after the European Commission accused the card giant of “artificially raising the costs of card payments.” The Commission issued its statement of objections... read more

31 May 15 @ 14:58

Business to business (B2B) is often thought of as the sluggish older brother of business to consumer (B2C). The prospect of paying a card interchange fee of 2–5 percent on... read more