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Unemployment Rises to 8.2% in May as Job Growth Stalls Again

6/01/12 LA Times

The nation's unemployment rate rose for the first time in nearly a year, to 8.2% in May, as the economy added a disappointingly small number of jobs for the third straight month. The government said Friday that employers created on net just 69,000 jobs last month -- less than half of what analysts were expecting. What's more, the Labor Department revised downward the job-growth numbers for the prior two months, putting the average monthly job growth at 96,000 for the last three months.

Retailers Generally Post Strong Same-Store Sales

5/31/12 MarketWatch

Retailers recovered nicely from April's post-Easter slump, delivering solid same-store sales for May, with Target Corp., Limited Brands Inc.and Macy's Inc. standing out, while Kohl's Corp. slumped. Mother's Day falling in the middle of the month instead of its start like last year helped May sales, as did a sequential decline in gasoline prices month-over-month. Retailers are also showing resiliency, since many are up against significant comparable-store sales gains from last year.

MasterCard CEO Says Card Volumes Increased in 2Q

5/31/12 American Banker

Banga also said the payment processor would be able to deal with an orderly exit of Greece from the Euro currency zone — but some MasterCard issued credit care might not work in case of a disorderly exit. MasterCard issued credit care might not work in case of a disorderly exit. "You have got a crisis management team, the risk management processes, operational monitoring ... transactions on a real-time basis in a number of these countries,"

Hit by Durbin, Visa’s U.S. Debit Volume Shrinks by Double Digits in April

5/30/12 Digital Transactions

Visa Inc. has been saying for months that the Durbin Amendment’s transaction-routing and network-exclusivity rules, which took effect April 1, would take a bite out of its debit business. Gash might be a better word for the amendment’s initial effects, especially on the Visa-owned Interlink PIN-debit network. The No. 1 payment network reported Wednesday that U.S. debit payment volume declined 12% in April versus April 2011 and slipped 8% May 1-28 against the year earlier period. In contrast, U.S. credit card payment volume grew 8% in April and 10% in May’s first four weeks.

Groupon Picks Up Breadcrumb For A Little Point-Of-Sale Magic

5/30/12 Seeking Alpha

Groupon announced via its blog that it has acquired Breadcrumb, the creators of an affordable point of sale system and iPad app that targets local restaurants. While the terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, Groupon has made a run of acquisitions over the last six months, and this move is likely one being made half for talent and half for access to the startup's client roster. That being said, we're hearing from sources close to the deal that the acquisition price was in the $10 to $15 million range.

There’s No Stopping the Rise of E-Money

5/31/12 ieee Spectrum

Science-fiction writers once imagined a galactic currency that would grease the wheels of commerce from here to Alpha Centauri. In fact, however, we are tending in precisely the other direction, toward a burgeoning number of ever more specialized currencies. These will circulate electronically, by means of the mobile phones that are increasingly part of the dress of every person on the planet. Seemingly everywhere you look, you can see the emergence of this pattern in what futurologists call the weak signals of change.

ETA/TSG Releases Q1 2012 Economic Indicators Report - Payments Still Outpace the Economy

5/31/12 TSG Metrics

MasterCard experienced strong growth in their debit card business in terms of the number of debit cards issued as well as in the activity of payments made on their debit products. While there are a number of factors behind this growth one could speculate a benefit to MasterCard as a result of the multiple routing provision included in the Durbin Amendment. Click here to see page.
The TSGPX, a basket of publically traded payments companies, advanced to its widest spread above that of the S&P 500 with a CAGR of 13% as compared to the S&P’s -0.2% from Q1 2007 to Q1 2012. Vantiv’s recent IPO also shows the recent strength of the industry as companies typically aim to go public in strong equity markets in order to obtain favorable market pricing. Click here to see page.
TSG’s merchant database indicated that based on both dollar volume processed and net revenue, merchant portfolios grew 15% year over year. This conclusion is sourced from TSG’s proprietary Merchant Portfolio Performance Study (MPPS) which represents data from 1.2 million merchant accounts which processed over $120 billion in annual volume as of December 2011. TSG’s MPPS report, available to participants only, is produced on a quarterly basis and contains countless charts and time series analysis on over 100 volume, profit, and attrition and growth metrics/ratios beginning with Q1 2009. Click here to see page.

Click here for the full report.

Using Tablet Bucks Trend In Restaurants, Analyst Says

5/29/12 ISO&Agent

A combination of hardware and software that enables restaurant patrons to order and pay on a tablet at the table is bucking the trend toward paying on smartphones, one analyst says. But besides handling transactions, the table-mounted devices from HubWorks Interactive LLC entertain customers while they await their food, Sam Winter, the company’s vice president of technology, tells ISO&Agent Weekly.

Breaches: The Investigation Challenges

5/31/12 Bank Info Security

Investigating a payments breach is no easy task. So many entities are connected in the payments chain, tracing the data leak can be time-consuming and complex, says Verizon's Dave Ostertag. Pointing to the breach at processor Global Payments, Ostertag says the investigation should follow certain steps, and organizations across the board can learn lessons from the actions of Global. Investigations into payments breaches are complex, says Ostertag. Large processors often acquire smaller processes, so tracing the breach can be complicated and disjointed.

London NFC Not Ready for Fast-Paced Fare Payment

5/30/12 NFC Times

The head of London’s large Oyster card program expressed frustration with the pace of development of NFC, complaining the technology isn’t ready for London transit riders to use to pay fares. Shashi Verma, director of customer experience for Transport for London, criticized the NFC industry, contending payment from NFC SIM cards isn’t fast enough to enable customers to flow through bustling London Underground turnstiles or onto buses. NFC-based mobile payment also isn’t easy for consumers to set up on their phones, he said.

Google Wallet Anniversary Falls Flat as New Software Problems Emerge

5/30/12 Finextra

The celebrations marking the first anniversary of the launch of Google Wallet promise to be a gloomy affair, with the emergence of a new flaw that disables the wallet functionality following a simple factory reset on NFC-equipped Android handsets. A factory reset is a fairly common solution deployed by mobile phone users when their apps begin to play up. But for phones with Google Wallet pre-installed, the reset trips the secure element in the device, in the process killing-off the Wallet function.

Startup Zooz Claims More Than 1K Developers for Streamlined in-App Payment Plug-in

5/30/12 Virtual-Strategy Magazine

ZooZ, a new provider of in-app mobile payment solutions, announced today that it is now offering an HTML5 mobile web version of its compact SDK, which requires just three lines of code for developers to “cut, paste, and go” in under 10 minutes. This latest version of ZooZ’s solution extends full functionality to both HTML5 and hybrid apps on mobile and desktop browsers alike, and enables mobile developers to quickly and easily aggregate multiple payment sources such as credit cards, PayPal, and Google Wallet into one universal solution.

The Danger Of Comparing Mobile Stats

5/30/12 StorefrontBacktalk

You say potato, I say integrated mobile commerce infrastructure. Three reports released this week illustrate that however much confusion exists today about mobile commerce terminology, there’s always room for more. When you see mobile projections, think hard and ask a lot of questions before you paste the data into a PowerPoint. Let’s start with Tuesday (May 29): Two respected marketshare companies, Gartner and IHL, released reports about the mobile market.

Are Social Security Numbers Still Secure for Payments?

5/29/12 Portals and Rails

Identity authentication is becoming increasingly important today as consumers conduct more and more social interactions, commerce, and financial transactions online. Many emerging payment methods are conducted electronically today and will no longer involve the face-to-face interactions that have provided an additional layer of security for our traditional retail payments environment. Unfortunately, our primary means of personal identification is the social security number, and it is becoming more vulnerable to compromise.

WorldPay Launches Advanced RFI and Chargeback Management Platform

5/28/12 BusinessWire

WorldPay, the global leader in payment processing, risk and alternative payments has launched Dispute Management System (DMS), a pioneering technology that automates the monitoring and processing of Requests for Information (RFI) and chargebacks, saving merchants considerable time and resource. DMS is a secure chargeback management platform that allows merchants to respond to issuer-initiated chargeback and RFI requests.

Elavon MobileMerchant Enables Commerce on the Move

5/29/12 Elavon

Elavon, a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) and a leading global payment solutions provider has just announced the full production release of MobileMerchant, following its highly successful, first to market, pilot project, which commenced in January 2012. The solution combines the ease of using a mobile phone for payments, with an affordable, easy-to-understand rate programme, making it the ideal solution for small businesses on the go.

The Small Business Authority Releases The April 2012 SB Authority Index

5/30/12 Newtek

Newtek Business Services, NASDAQ: NEWT, The Small Business Authority, announced the release of the SB Authority Index for April 2012 reaching 111.42 points. The SB Authority index is down .06% from March 2012. The decline was led by approved SBA gross lending volume and the Russell microcap index.

Intuit Launches MoneyDue App to Turn Calendar Appointments into Payments

5/31/12 PC World

Intuit announced a new iPhone app called MoneyDue that turns calendar appointments into billable services, with payment reminders and the option to send E-bills through the Intuit PaymentNetwork. One of the biggest problems facing small businesses -- contractors, freelancers, and tutors -- is that they don't get paid fast enough," said Yumi Clark, a director for the Intuit PaymentNetwork. "MoneyDue allows users to turn time into money by reminding customers to pay.

Planet Payment Acquires Branded Payment Solutions Ltd

5/23/12 Nasdaq

Planet Payment, Inc. a leading provider of international payment processing and multi-currency processing services, today announces that the Company has completed the purchase of Branded Payment Solutions Ltd, an Irish payments company based in Dublin ("BPS"). The acquisition of BPS expands the scope of Planet Payment's global technology solutions.

Visa Faces Criticism Over Olympic ATM Plans

6/01/12 MSN UK

Olympics sponsor Visa has been accused of limiting visitors' access to cash at the Games by replacing 27 dispensers with just eight of its own outlets. Visa confirmed it was replacing 27 ATMs at the various Olympic sites with eight which would run on its own system as part of its exclusivity arrangement as a sponsor. Ron Delnevo of the UK Payments Council said the move appeared to be designed to "compel those visiting Olympic venues to use only Visa cards".

Will More Restaurants Ban the Use of Prepaid Cards?

5/31/12 The New York Times

Foodies have been waiting in long lines to sample the delights at Pok Pok NY, the recently opened Brooklyn branch of Andy Ricker’s popular Portland, Ore., Thai restaurant. But they had better not expect to pay with prepaid debit cards. An alert colleague, while salivating over the online menu, noted that the fine print warns that the restaurant doesn’t accept them. We here at Bucks hadn’t encountered a prepaid ban before, so we inquired for more details.

Russian Bank to Release Angry Birds Bankcards

5/28/12 The Moscow News

The immensely popular Angry Birds franchise is spreading its wings in Russia, releasing an Angry Birds bankcard in conjunction with Promsvyazbank. Together with Internet Retail Solutions, or Irsol, the bank is to produce the branded cards starting from June 4, RBK Daily reported on Monday. The cards featuring the furious feathered ones and their porky protagonists will be the their creator Rovio’s first official Angry Birds branded product to be produced in Russia.