Industry News

Target Customers Hacked

40 Million Target Customers Hacked [2023 Update]

The Official Merchant Services Blog tackles the big news in the payment processing industry today: The major hack of discount retailer of Target that stole credit and debit card data from 40 million accounts right smack dab in the middle of the holiday shopping season. The sophisticated hack reportedly took place over several weeks — starting

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Swipe Fee Suit Ongoing After Fairness Hearing [2023 Update]

A $7.25 billion settlement relating to credit card interchange fees continues to encounter stiff opposition from a number of major retailers and several significant retail trade associations. Case History The antitrust case against Visa, MasterCard and several issuing banks stemmed from a dispute relating to the percentage of credit card transaction fees that retailers must

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tokenization

Tokenization Makes Card Use Safe

Safeguarding Stored Cardholder Data with Tokenization In this era of connectivity, consumers are increasingly concerned about the safety of their personal data. Leaders in the merchant services industry are actively engaged in developing new ways to protect customer information. Here at Host Merchant Services, we commit to security by providing our clients with tokenization, the

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NFC loyalty down by contact for Google [2023 Update]

Google Wallet dropped NFC Loyalty Points and Gift Cards Google recently announced fundamental changes to its Google Wallet service. On August 21, Google Wallet stopped supporting NFC redemption for gift cards and merchant loyalty points. In these competitive times, more and more businesses have come to rely on loyalty programs to spur consumer activity. By

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Big Data, Payments And Customer Loyalty – Part Two

Across the ideological spectrum, business experts agree that the rise of Big Data is rapidly changing modern marketing and sales. In this transformational time, customer intelligence systems are proliferating at a remarkable rate. Although adopting these systems often involves overcoming logistical hurdles, the rewards of sophisticated data gathering are indisputable. Proper customer intelligence is vital

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Imposing Credit Card Minimums

Service Impact of Imposing Credit Card Minimums [2023 Update]

Throughout many industries, companies are feeling the effects of 2010’s Durbin Amendment. This much-vaunted amendment to Dodd-Frank was intended to protect consumers and businesses from unreasonably large interchange transaction fees. As finally implemented in 2011, the amendment protects one large class of businesses while doing measurable harm to firms specializing in smaller transactions. Though the

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Payments And Customer Loyalty

Big Data, Payments And Customer Loyalty – Part One [2023 Update]

Businesses in many industries are contributing to the rise of Big Data, a confluence of modern data-gathering mechanisms. Larger hard drives and faster CPUs enable people to gather and analyze vast collections of commercial information. Though Google is the largest and most prominent data-gathering operation, retailers like Amazon and Walmart famously gather and analyze enormous

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Can Durbin Debit Rates Go Even Lower

Can Durbin Debit Rates Go Even Lower? [2024Update]

A new U.S District Court ruling could lead to major changes in debit card processing fees. Will the Durbin debit rates go lower with this? Let us understand. On July 31, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon swept aside the Federal Reserve‘s 2011 implementation of the Durbin Amendment. Passed in 2010, this amendment to the Dodd-Frank law was intended to

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MCX, Paydiant, and the Battle Over Mobile Wallets [2023 Update]

The mobile Internet revolution is rapidly changing the longstanding status quo in the payment processing industry. As more people purchase items with their mobile devices, the public is demanding more options and greater security from transaction processing companies. For many long years, big banks and processing companies like Visa and Mastercard faced little competition and were

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