Past Articles

Contactless 3.0

We all remember the promises when contactless was first issued over a decade ago on cards in the United States - it was going to revolutionize the checkout process. We were told not only would contactless improve the checkout experience but somehow it was also going to increase the average purchase and frequency of our customers. Several issuers spent the additional money to include the contactless chip on cards but not many merchants saw the benefit of adding new technology to the checkouts.

Protecting Your Most Valuable Currency - Data

With fraud losses in the U.S. reaching a staggering $24.B in recent years, merchants undoubtedly understand the importance of prioritizing and maintaining laser-sharp focus on cybersecurity to avoid becoming another data breach statistic. News stories are plentiful with examples of businesses across almost every industry experiencing security breaches, which affirms the unfortunate reality that no business is too big or too small to become the target of a cyberattack.

The Rush to Implementation - Who Benefits?

We have seen a number of new payment products, solutions, and initiatives either announced or commercialized in 2018, including Visa Claims Resolution, MasterCom Claims Manager, Secure Remote Commerce, EMV 3DS (ie. 2.0), and 3DS related compliance programs to name just a few. What is the merchant sentiment when it comes to these new offerings?

Report Urges New Fraud Management Solutions as Global Card Fraud Patterns Shift

Merchant Advisory Group (MAG) and CMSPI launch retail payments fraud investigation, with support from Fiserv.

Mixed reviews for Visa's new chargeback process

It might be too early to determine the full impact of the new Visa Claims Resolution process designed to streamline and limit chargebacks, but 52 percent of respondents surveyed claimed no decrease in chargebacks since VCR, and most of the 33 percent reporting a decline cited a decrease of less than 5 percent.

A Guide to Visa and Mastercard's New Mandate for Stored Payment Credentials

How Visa and Mastercard’s new mandates for Stored-Credential transactions effect ecommerce merchants and what you need to do to ensure compliance. These days, more ecommerce businesses are storing their customers' credit card numbers and other payment credentials to make it easier to process automated or recurring charges for things like subscriptions and one-click shopping. Visa and Mastercard are introducing new guidelines this year for how merchants should handle stored payment credentials.

PSD2 – The Changes and Opportunities Explained

PSD2 is set to shake up the payment sector, so how will that affect you as a merchant or marketplace? Worldpay and its PSD2 expert, Charles Damen, are here to guide you through the changes and opportunities PSD2 is set to bring.

MAG CEO John Drechny: The Federal Reserve must develop a real-time payments rail

Customer experience throughout one’s shopping experience is a priority for merchants. Competition, transparency, choice, security, safety, and balanced liability all play an important role in merchants’ payments considerations as they seek to make the customer’s payment experience fast and easy.

A Paradigm Shift in Payments – A Future the Industry Should Demand for Digital

As consumers continue to leverage digital channels more often for transacting, there has been a sense of optimism that the paradigm in payments could shift to one that fosters increased competition and innovation coming from new technology players offering creative consumer experiences that enhance overall retail commerce. In recent weeks, it has become unclear if that paradigm shift will be challenged in light of a new remote commerce framework being introduced by the global payment networks.

The road to PSD2 – Reducing Fraud and Protecting the Customer Experience

As the shopping experience increasingly shifts online, organizations across the payment space are under greater pressure than ever to reduce fraud while making sure transactions remain as easy as possible. A new European Union initiative – the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) – is designed specifically for this purpose and lays out a framework so that companies can both protect customers, whilst also providing the best possible shopping experience.

Bigger-Ticket Items Require Bigger Capabilities

Customers are more discerning when deciding where to buy big-ticket items, so retailers with strategies in place to make the purchasing process seamless and effectively inform and engage shoppers across channels have an advantage. This includes consumer financing options for customers across the credit spectrum and new technology that enhances the customer experience and integrates a flexible credit program.

It's a Small, Small World

As business continues to expand around the globe, I often reflect back on a single Disney song from 1962 that allowed us to peer into the future. Shortly after the Cuban missile crisis, The Sherman Brothers wrote the song “It’s a Small World (After All).”

GDPR - What Merchants Need to Know

By now most organizations have heard of the European Union’s (EU’s) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in May 2018. The new legislation establishes guidelines on how companies should handle customer privacy, store data securely, and respond to security breaches. Businesses across the EU (or who have dealings with EU companies) have been working hard to change their practices and get GDPR compliant. Merchants, who frequently come into contact with sensitive customer information like payment details, have to be especially prepared as GDPR has the potential to affect many areas of their businesses.

Innovate Now: Enabling Secure PIN Debit for eCommerce via Credit Push (MAG Quarterly- Volume Six, Issue One)

March 8, 2018

What Is Common Debit AID and Why Does It Matter?

The U.S. may have the most complex point of sale (POS) debit payment system in the world, and the migration to EMV has made it more confusing for many merchants. Common AID was created to simplify this for merchants, but it’s important that they fully understand what it means for their business and their customers.

Why is it So Complex to Reconcile Interchange Fees? Can Analytics help?

How does your company stack up against best-practices and costs of card based sales? Payments analytics provides clarity, understanding, and helps reduce fees more easily and faster. Like anything, if you can’t measure it, you cannot improve it.

Why is refund abuse at an all-time high?

Over 50% of online merchants are seeing an increase in refund abuse, as customers take advantage of easy returns and extended refund periods. Here’s what’s behind the increase...

European Competition Commission Gets it Right with Payments Legislation?

September 3, 2015

What’s Up in Washington? (MAG Quarterly- Volume Five, Issue Three)

September 7, 2017

What’s Up in Washington