Google Wallet Upgrade Adds Multiple Cards Support

Google has released an updated version of its mobile wallet service. The Google Wallet app now supports all credit and debit cards from Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover for online and in-store purchases. Google has also changed the way the card details are stored: instead of storing the payment data in the phones secure element, the new Google Wallet app stores the data on Google servers in the cloud. Read more…

The Smart Card Alliance Launches EMV Migration Forum to Bring Chip-based Payments to the U.S.

The Smart Card Alliance, a multi-industry association working to advance use and adoption of smart card technology, has created the EMV Migration Forum to support the move from magnetic stripe technology to EMV-based technology in the United States. EMV chip technology helps to reduce fraud from counterfeit, lost and stolen cards. Read more…

BarPay Starts Cash Payment System for Online Purchases in Germany

BarPay introduces a new cash based payment service for e-commerce in Germany. With BarPay consumers can pay in cash at retail POS terminals for goods and services they ordered online. Read more… (German)

Mobile payment startup iZettle has to stop processing Visa card payments in Denmark, Finland and Norway where it currently trials its mobile card payment service. The company has released a statement on its official blog, announcing that Visa Europe is forcing iZettle to stop accepting Visa payments on August 1. iZettle will continue to accept MasterCard and AmEx in those countries.

Sweden-based iZettle provides a mobile payment service that enables merchants to accept credit card payments using an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. The company is often referred as the European version of Square. But unlike Square, iZettle reads the credit card data from the EMV-chip (the global standard for chip cards) rather than the magnetic stripe. iZettle started its mobile payment service in Sweden and is currently running an open beta in other Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland and Norway) and the United Kingdom. It’s noteworthy that iZettle never supported Visa payments in the U.K.  (more…)

ViVOtech to Divest NFC-Reader Business

After NFC Times reported that NFC technology provider ViVOtech will discontinue operations, the company now officially confirms a drastic restructuring process. ViVOtech has released a statement, saying that the company plans to divest its reader business and focus on the software business. ViVOtech develops software and POS terminals for contactless NFC-based payments. Although the company has shipped almost 1 million NFC readers worldwide and is partnering with Google Wallet and ISIS it looks like ViVOtech is the first big victim of slow NFC adoption. Read more…

Payvia Launches Mobile Payment Service in the U.S.

Payvia has launched a new U.S. mobile payment platform that enables users to purchase digital goods and services from their mobile device and pay via their carrier bill. Payvia is part of carrier billing transaction network m-Qube. Currently, the direct carrier billing service is limited to customers of Sprint and T-Mobile. Read more…

MPowa Debuts Mobile Payment App for Android

UK-based mobile payment service mPowa is now also available for mobile phones using Google’s Android operating system. Android users can now download the mPowa mobile payment app from the Play Store to accept card payments on the go.

Telefonica Partners with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM for Direct Carrier Billing

Telefonica has signed a deal with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM to make it easier for its customers to buy digital goods and services via their mobile devices. The partnership enables Telefonica customers (O2 in Germany, Movistar in Spain) to charge purchases on Facebook, Google Play, Windows Phone Market or the BlackBerry App World directly to their mobile phone bill. Read more…

SponsorPay Reports 300% Growth in Mobile Business

SponsorPay, a cross-platform for mobile app monetization and user acquisition, has seen 300% growth in its mobile business since January 2012. SponsorPay has also rolled out a tablet-optimized version of their offer wall. Read more…

Dwolla Introduces Places

Peer-to-peer payment platform Dwolla has launched Places, a directory allowing users to find locations that use Dwolla. Read more…

Adyen Adds Access to Eastern Europe via TrustPay

Payment service provider Adyen is partnering with TrustPay, a payment processor in Central and Easetern Europe (CEE), to extend its international reach. The agreement enables Adyen and TrustPay to accept payments in 13 countries in 11 currencies in the CEE region.

American Express to Adopt EMV in the U.S.

American Express (AmEx) has released its roadmap to advance EMV chip-based contact, contactless and mobile payments in the U.S. EMV refers to a microchip that is embedded in the credit card. It was developed by Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) to improve security against fraud and ensure global interoperability. By April next year, processors must be able to support American Express EMV chip-based contact, contactless and mobile transactions. Read more…

Today, MasterCard and Deutsche Telekom announced a strategic partnership to bring NFC-based mobile payment services to Deutsche Telekom’s 93 million mobile subscribers in Europe. The first product to launch is a mobile wallet app called MyWallet for customers of Deutsche Telekom in Poland this summer. The digital wallet will support various local banks and financial institutions and enable customers to pay contactless at every retail store where MasterCard PayPass is accepted. In Germany Deutsche Telekom will first trial mobile payment with mobile phone tags and NFC-enabled credit cards in order to prepare for the launch of MyWallet in early next year. Other than for example Google Wallet the payment credentials are stored on the users SIM card rather than on the phone itself.

Deutsche Telekom will also extend into financial services and become a credit card issuer for MasterCard. The telco giant will issue NFC-enabled MasterCard credit cards in Europe via its subsidiary company ClickandBuy, the owner of an e-money license.

Thomas Kiessling, Chief Product and Innovation Officer for Deutsche Telekom commented, “This is a huge step on our way to increase mobile payments. With MasterCard we have a well-known and experienced partner generating growth in this important market segment. We want to build a comprehensive ecosystem around mobile payment, helping Telekom to realize its strategy of being the first choice for customers regarding connected life and work”.

Check out the promo video to see how MyWallet works:

Over the years, credit cards have become the most popular payment methods for online purchases worldwide. Although new payment solutions like PayPal or Dwolla and alternative payment methods such as Bitcoin are gaining traction, credit cards have established as default e-commerce payment method. This is particularly the case for international transactions – there is almost no way around credit cards for online merchants that want to sell international. In this article we take a closer look at the credit card payment ecosystem. The next article will focus on how to choose a merchant account and payment service provider.

How credit card processing works

Credit card processing involves several parties, the customer, the bank that issues the credit card to the customer (issuing bank), the merchant, the merchant bank (acquirer bank) and last but not least the credit card network (e.g. Visa, MasterCard or American Express). In most cases online merchants also use a 3^rd party payment service provider (PSP) that bundles a variety of payment methods and acts as a gateway that can connect to multiple acquiring banks and credit card associations. Furthermore a PSP can offer additional services such as risk management, reporting, fraud protection and multi-currency support.

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Online Payment: Braintree Goes Global

Online and mobile payment service provider Braintree is expanding its payment platform into new countries, including the UK, European Union, Australia, and Canada. Braintree is processing over $4 billion in annual credit card volume (including almost $1 billion in mobile payments). The company works with many web2.0 online merchants, including LivingSocial, Airbnb, and Fab.com. Recently we had the chance to talk to Braintree’s CEO bill Ready: Read the Interview. Braintree will first offer access to its international payment services in a beta trial. The commercial launch is planned for Q3 this year. Read more…

Mobile Payment: Facebook Rolls out Improved In-App Mobile Payment Flow

Facebook has launched a simplified and improved payment flow for mobile payments. Carrier billing (or operator billing) has established as one way for game and app developers to monetize their apps. The usual carrier billing payment takes up to seven steps and requires SMS verification. Facebook’s new two-step (1:open payment dialog 2: confirm) mobile payment flow is now available to customers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Read more…

Cards: German LBBW Provides German Olympians with Contactless Payment Visa Cards

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), a commercial bank in Germany, is launching one of the first Visa payWave credit cards in Germany. In cooperation with loyalty card scheme Payback the Olympic Games card will be issued to the Germany Olympic athletes. The card is produced by Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) and supports contactless and contact payment. Athletes can use the card pay contactless at thousands of NFC-enabled terminals in London. Read more…

Mobile point of sale solutions that allow retail merchants to accept card payments with a smartphone or tablet continue to be a hot topic. Mobile POS services make accepting card payments easier and cheaper, a big advantage especially for small and medium sized companies. See our The Fight for the Mobile Point of Sale article where we provided an introduction to the existing mobile POS services.

So far Jack Dorsey’s Square is the leader when it comes to mobile POS transaction in the U.S. But the competition is heating up. Now even big payment companies start similar services while startups launch Square-like mobile payment products all around the world.

Big payment companies take on the mobile POS market

VeriFone, one of the largest POS terminal makers, starts its own mobile POS service for small merchants called SAIL. It supports integration with traditional VeriFone point-of-sale hardware, making it possible to also accept NFC-based payments. VeriFone charges a 2.7% for swiped transaction (1.95% with a $9.95/m Pro plan).

Mobile POS outside of the United States

Unfortunately Square is only available to customers in the United States so far. Sweden-based iZettle proved that the concept can be very successful implemented in Europe and over the last weeks some interesting services launched outside the U.S.:

• Payment processor Sage Pay has started beta testing of Sage Pay Mobile in the UK. Sage Pay Mobile uses a small terminal that connectes via Bluetooth with the merchants smartphone to process card based payments.
• Another UK-based mobile payment service is Mpowa. The Square-like service will launch soon in the UK and then expand to other parts of Europe and North America.
• Streetpay by Masterpayment will be the first mobile POS service to launch in Germany. The Payment service provider plans to start the service in mid-June this year.
• It is rumored that Berlin incubator Rocket Internet will start a mobile POS service soon. The name of the project already changed from ZenPay to EvoPay and now payleven. Although the service hasn’t been launched yet merchants in Germany can already sign up to get notified when the product is released. According to their German website payleven has no monthly fees and will include a free card reader. Further details remain unclear.

Mobile Payment: Launch of the Smart Card Alliance Mobile and NFC Council

With the increasing number of NFC-enabled smartphones and new NFC applications the Smart Card Alliance will now focus more on contactless and mobile technology. The Smart Card Alliance announces the formation of the Mobile and NFC Council to provide a platform for bringing together the NFC technologies and the industry. The Smart Card Alliance is a multi-industry association working to advance use and adoption of smart card (a card with an embedded microchip) technology. Read more about the Mobile and NFC Council

Alternative Payment: GameStop will sell Steam Wallet cards in U.S. stores

Video game retailer GameStop is partnering with its digital rival Valve to sell Steam Wallet cards in all U.S. GamesStop locations. Valve’s Steam is an online platform for the delivery and management of PC games. The Steam Wallet cards enable customers that don’t have access to credit cards (or don’t want to use them for online purchases) to purchase games online via the Steam platform. Source

Cards: Ingenico brings EMV and NFC-enabled POS terminals to the U.S.

Ingenico, a provider of payment solutions and devices, partners with distributor POS Portal to bring the latest NFC and EMV-ready Telium series point-of-sale POS devices into the United States. Joe Villamil, VP of Business Development at POS Portal commented: “The migration to EMV presents complex challenges for our customers. We are confident that Ingenico and its new Telium range of POS products will be a perfect fit for our company.” More…

Online Payment

• Online payment company Dwolla wins a Best of Show Award at FinovateSpring, a conference about innovative financial and banking technology. Dwolla is a web based payment platform that allows users to send, receive, and request money from other users. The service is free for micro-transactions, for transactions above $10 Dwolla charges a flat fee of $0.25. The company received the award for their new FISync technology that enables users to integrate their bank accounts directly with the Dwolla platform.

Mobile Payment

• Mobile wallet service ISIS, a joint venture between the U.S. carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, add support for American Express cards. ISIS is a mobile wallet payment service based on NFC technology. Read more
• MasterCard starts its new PayPass Wallet service. Customers can store their payment credentials in the digital wallet and use the service to pay online and in stores. Tap-and-go in-store payments can be made using a NFC-enabled smartphone and the PayPass Wallet app. Read more

Cards

• Citi Ventures, Citi’s venture arm, invests $3.3M in online payment and ID verification company Jumio. Jumio’s Netswipe solution turns a webcam into a credit card scanner. The camera analyzes and verifies the physical credit card in real time. Card holders only have to approve the transaction by entering the security code number and the additional security and authentication mechanism 3-D Secure of Visa and MasterCard. The service supports Visa, MasterCard, JCB, Diners Club and American Express credit cards. Read more