eCommerce and mobile commerce solution provider, Mpayy, Inc. has announced that it has closed its Series B financing led by US Bancorp with participation from a number of private investors.   » Continue Reading

Kathy Chu reports for USA Today on gas stations wanting to encourage customers paying with cash rather than credit cards - but finding that with higher gasoline prices that consumers are wanting to pay with credit cards more often because they "don't have enough cash on hand."

In May, L.L.Bean announced it was terminating its card issuing relationship with Bank of America. Today, L.L.Bean and Barclays announced the launch of the new L.L.Bean Visa card, which will be available tomorrow, July 1. According to the two companies, "the card rewards loyal customers with coupon dollars good toward L.L.Bean merchandise every time they use the card, plus a wealth of new and improved benefits to make the card even more rewarding than before." As part of the deal, Barclays earlier this month opened a new call center in Maine.   » Continue Reading

Planet Payment has announced the launch in the United States of Payment BuyVoice, a mobile commerce solution that "provides merchants with a cost effective, secure and convenient way to accept credit cards, from any mobile phone or landline."   » Continue Reading

OpenTable has announced the beta launch of the OpenTable Mobile service, "enabling consumers to find real-time table availability and book restaurant reservations through their mobile devices. Now it’s even easier for people who are away from their computers to enjoy the convenience and ease of booking their restaurant reservations online."   » Continue Reading

Electronic Payment Exchange (EPX) has announced today it has signed a multi-year agreement with Pioneer Telephone to process its customers’ payments. In addition to traditional payment processing, Pioneer will begin using EPX’s PINless Debit product to process their customers’ payments who choose to pay for services using their debit cards.   » Continue Reading

In a press release, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) says that "the nation’s 115,000-plus convenience stores will communicate their outrage over devastating credit card fees via pumptoppers that will educate consumers and Congress about the problem." NACS will be making "pumptoppers" available free of charge to retailers "communicating the industry’s fight against sky-high interchange rates."   » Continue Reading

Visa has announced that it is "implementing processing and rate changes that will result in benefits for American consumers and fuel merchants frustrated by rising prices at the pump. Visa’s new processing approach for fuel transactions will enable consumers to buy gas more easily and allow motorists and station owners to better avoid the risks and inconveniences associated with pump limits and holds on funds. Visa also will reduce interchange rates for fuel transactions, which can lower costs for oil companies and service stations and can be passed onto consumers at the pump."   » Continue Reading

Overstock.com has announced it is now giving shoppers the ability to shop and pay later with the promotional financing service, PayPal Pay Later. "The PayPal Pay Later service gives Overstock.com customers a credit account with flexible financing options - even if a buyer doesn't have a PayPal account. As part of the introductory financing promotion, customers can defer payments on purchases for 90 days, allowing consumers to buy what they really want on Overstock.com and plan their payments in a way that best fits their budgets."   » Continue Reading

The National Retail Federation has announced that it welcomes "the addition of Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond, R-Mo., as a co-sponsor of the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008, saying the move shows lawmakers in both parties are increasingly concerned by hidden fees that cost the average family $427 a year."   » Continue Reading

eBay has announced plans to allow third parties to integrate applications directly onto its ecommerce site. According to eBay, "this move will give developers unprecedented access to eBay’s community of professional sellers, creating more opportunities for developers to market their tools and giving sellers a wider variety of sales optimization applications."   » Continue Reading

NetIQ has announced results of a survey of over 300 companies in North America concluding that, "despite multiple extensions of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance deadline, companies are still struggling to adequately protect the data of their customers. The threat of significant fines (up to $500,000) and loss of customers and company reputation in the event of a security breach have not radically spurred PCI compliance."   » Continue Reading

Phil Windley is reporting on his Technometria blog from this week's Internet Retailing conference in Chicago. His first post on the conference reviewed the keynote address by Mike Boylston from JC Penney. His second post reviews the talk by Robert Antall, CEO, Lake West Group, on the new level of competitiveness in e-retailing. Digital Transactions is also reporting from the conference.

Digby, a mobile commerce service provider, has announced the availability of Powered by Digby, "a mobile commerce software platform that gives retailers the ability to deliver a superior mobile shopping experience to their customers."   » Continue Reading

Bill Me Later and ShoeMall.com have announced they have partnered to offer ShoeMall customers a more flexible way to pay online without the use of their credit cards. "   » Continue Reading

Amazon.com has made an equity investment in The Talk Market, "a user-generated TV shopping platform that allows businesses to create broadcast-quality product presentations and gives consumers an entertaining shopping experience."

In a press release, the two companies noted that "Integrated payment processing is provided by Amazon Web Services Flexible Payment Service (Amazon FPS). Using Amazon FPS, merchants at the Talk Market get free Amazon Payments Business accounts to process credit cards and tens of millions of Amazon customers can purchase anything on The Talk Market with the credit cards they have on file with Amazon."   » Continue Reading

Bill Me Later has announced that Borders has added its alternative payment functionality to its newly launched e-commerce site at Borders.com. "With Bill Me Later, Borders shoppers will be able to add to their book, movie and music collections online and via phone without sharing their credit card information." Borders.com is also offering customers no payments for 90 days on purchases of $99 or more with Bill Me Later.   » Continue Reading

A new Cisco study concludes that "mobile devices represent a major growth opportunity for the retail industry by providing a new purchasing channel for consumers. The company's third annual e-commerce study indicates that mobile devices are quickly joining physical stores, websites and catalogs as an important retail channel."   » Continue Reading

Don Davis writes for Internet Retailer about how ecommerce merchants can reduce payments acceptance costs.

"To get the best deal, retailers must be prepared to go shopping among the many processors—or transaction acquirers in payments lingo—vying for their business, and to examine every rate and fee in the contract," says Allen Weinberg of payments consulting firm Glenbrook Partners.

“The guiding principle is that everything is negotiable,” Weinberg says. “But it’s important to keep in mind that every acquirer has a profitability target they feel they must meet. If you win on a couple of points, they will likely try to make it up in another area.”

The Direct Response Forum (DRF), a trade association for payments professionals in the direct response industry, has announced the full agenda of educational sessions that will be offered at its annual meeting on August 11th, 12th and 13th at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel.   » Continue Reading

PayPal has announced results of a survey conducted with comScore that found that unexpectedly high shipping fees are the number one reason consumers abandon online purchases. According to PayPal, "checkout abandonment is a significant challenge for online merchants, with an estimated two out of every three consumers failing to pay for items they put in their shopping carts."   » Continue Reading

While we're all suffering as consumers every time we fill up our gas tanks from the increases in gasoline prices, Vic Kolenc writes in an article titled "Card swipes hurt gasoline retailers" in the El Paso Times about fuel retailers complaining about credit card interchange fees. One fuel retailer comments: "For every $1 cash (sale), I bring in $2 in credit (sales). By the time I end up paying all the credit-card fees, I don't have much left."

The Merchant's Guide, LLC has announced the release of "Understanding Credit Card Interchange In Card-Not-Present Environments" calling it "the first comprehensive guide developed to provide direct sellers with the tactical knowledge to minimize credit card Interchange fees."   » Continue Reading

Crutchfield has announced that customers who shop online or through their call center can now choose to pay securely with cash using eBillme, an alternative payment option which brings online banking to the eCommerce checkout.   » Continue Reading

Michael Dahn posted on the PCI Blog - Compliance Demystified about the recent discussions about the industry cost of PCI compliance. Both he and Walt Conway make important points about the key question being "Why is the cost of compliance so high?" and suggest that mastering PCI compliance is as much about defining scope down through business process changes as anything else. Walt writes: "Who said you have to keep doing things the same way as before? PCI is a great opportunity to actually reduce the institution's risk not by protecting CHD and all personally identifiable information (PII), but by getting rid of it."

Maria Aspan reports for the American Banker (subs. reqd) that L.L. Bean has posted on its web site that it will be terminating its current relationship with Bank of America, issuer of the L.L. Bean Visa card, effective at the end of June. On its web site, the retailer says it will be providing information about a new L.L. Bean Visa card in the coming weeks.

Apple Vacations has announced that it will add the Secure Vault Payments (SVP) as an additional payment option for online customers. The Automated Clearing House (ACH)-based Internet payments network allows consumers to conduct e-commerce and bill payment transactions without sharing personal account information. SVP will be available to Apple Vacations' customers this summer.   » Continue Reading

A few days back we wrote about some expert views on the industry cost of PCI compliance. We've had several interesting discussions in email from folks reacting to the $2 billion number that my expert friends at dinner came up with. One of those, long-time friend and former colleague, Walt Conway, sent along his own "very rough cut estimate" of the PCI compliance costs. Walt's been consulting with colleges and universities on PCI for the last couple of years - and I asked him if we could share his thinking here.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled Rising Credit Card Interchange Fees Equal Double Punch at Pumps, Convenience Store News reports on yesterday's testimony at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on interchange fees. "Last year, convenience stores paid $7.6 billion in credit card fees, a figure more than double industry profits of $3.4 billion."

Tom Robinson, president of the San Jose, Calif.-based Robinson Oil Corp. who testified at the hearing (his full testimony is here) went on: "Right now there is no market for interchange fees. The fees are fixed by the banks, hidden from the public and forced on merchants in a take-it-or-leave-it offer. The Credit Card Fair Fee Act will create a market for interchange fees for the first time by allowing merchants and the card associations to negotiate on equal footing."

The testimony of several of the witnesses at today's heading on interchange fees by the US House Judiciary Committee is now available online in PDF format. Included is testimony from: Thomas L. Robinson (Vice President of Regulations, National Association of Convenience Stores), Joshua R. Floum (General Counsel and Corporate Sec., Visa Inc.), Steve Cannon (Chairman, Constantine Cannon, LLP), Joshua Peirez (Chief Payment System Integrity Officer, MasterCard Worldwide), John Blum (Vice President of Operations, Chartway FCU), and Edward Mierzwinski (Consumer Program Director U.S. PIRG).

The National Retail Federation in a press release urged the House Judiciary Committee to support antitrust legislation that would require Visa and MasterCard to negotiate with merchants over credit card processing fees. The NRF said "a hidden fee charged by the two card giants is projected to cost the average U.S. family more than $400 this year."   » Continue Reading

The National Association of Convenience Stores has issued a press release on today's House Judiciary Committee hearing on interchange fees. Tom Robinson, president of San Jose, California-based Robinson Oil Corporation testified today at the hearing.   » Continue Reading

A few weeks ago, as part of an article about Hannaford's recent card data breach, I blogged about my 'guestimate' of the cost of PCI compliance across the industry. I said: "Seems like somewhere between US$100 million and US$1 billion?" and asked for reactions. No one reacted - so maybe everyone agreed with my estimate?

Tonight at dinner with some sophisticated, experienced players actively involved in the business of PCI compliance, I posed the same question. After chewing on it a while (it takes a few minutes to comprehend the magnitude of the question!), they settled in on the figure of US$2 billion - to me a pretty staggering sum! Does spending of that magnitude significantly change the economics of card acceptance for merchants?

The PCI Security Standards Council has announced the timeline for the release of PCI DSS version 1.2, scheduled for availability in October 2008. According to the Council, the new version of PCI DSS will 'enhance the clarity of its technical requirements, offer improved flexibility and address new and evolving risks and threats.'   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Welch pushes bill to trim back credit card fees on businesses' in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, Peter Hirschfeld reports from Vermont about Rep. Peter Welch's news conference yesterday where he attacked 'rising credit card fees' and announced plans to introduce new legislation concerning them later this week. "It's a near monopoly they have," Welch said of VISA and MasterCard. "And, as is often the case with monopoly power, it's abused." More information is available on Welch's web site.

Glenbrook's next roundtable on the Structure of the Merchant Marketplace will be held June 10th in Santa Clara, California. Registration is now open. Allen Weinberg and Carol Coye Benson will be taking a special look "under the covers" – focusing on the key industry verticals within the U.S. merchant marketplace.   » Continue Reading

JPMorgan Chase has announced that it will purchase an undivided interest in Target’s credit card receivables for approximately $3.6 billion in cash representing approximately 47 percent of the principal amount of Target’s outstanding receivables.   » Continue Reading

The US government's economic stimulus checks will start arriving shortly in 130 million US households (the only way to actually get one is to have filed a US federal tax return for 2007). See the Economic Stimulus Payments Information Center at the IRS web site for details on the program.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'The Tangled Web of PCI Compliance', Richard Adhikari writes for InternetNews.com - 'The best protection is to have an end-to-end solution combining source code reviews, vulnerability scans and Web application firewalls.'

David Navetta, a lawyer with InfoSecCompliance, writes for SC Magazine about the legal implications of the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), saying it 'now presents serious legal challenges and risk for retailers.'

Saul Hansell reports for the New York Times that Amazon.com has 'filed a lawsuit challenging New York State’s new law forcing online retailers to collect sales tax on shipments to state residents.' Apparently the law is known anecdotally in the state as the "Amazon tax".

eBillme has announced it will host a webinar on Wednesday, May 14, where Russ Jones of Glenbrook Partners will provide an in-depth look at the retailer integration process for several alternative payment options including: Bill Me Later, eBillme, Google Checkout, and PayPal.   » Continue Reading

Bill Me Later has announced that Journeys.com, a specialty retailer of footwear and accessories, has launched Bill Me Later on its web site. With the Bill Me Later payment service, consumers can conveniently and securely make online purchases without a credit card. Journeys.com is also extending the additional convenience and flexibility of no payments for 90 days to its customers.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Paying breach bill may not buy Hannaford full data protection', Jaikumar Vijayan writes for Computerworld about Hannaford's discussion last week that it is spending millions of dollars on new IT security tools. The grocer last week said it has plans to encrypt all payment card data on its internal network.

A friend of ours over the weekend wondered what the total cost to the industry of PCI compliance will be. Seems like somewhere between $100 million and $1 billion? What do you think? Comments?

in an article about merchant-centric loyalty programs, Kelli B. Grant writes for the Wall St. Journal about how 'retailers are hoping to get customers back into their stores is by offering all sorts of new rewards programs and in-store bonuses to their most loyal customers.'

Jayne O'Donnell and Erin Kutz write for USA TODAY that 'a handful of retail chains are dangling discounts and promotions to try to get people to spend their [tax rebate] checks in the companies' stores.' The article lists a number of retailers who are offering the opportunity for customers to exchange their rebate checks for gift cards typically with a 10% increase in value over the value of the rebate check itself.

Javelin Strategy & Research has released a new report titled 'Contactless Strategy & Forecast' ( Preview) that reports findings about how contactless technology will become mainstream for payment card transactions. According to Javelin, the report 'highlights how the promotion of non-network payment products will drive acceptance, thwart competition and pave the path for what card networks and issuers consider to be the eventual goal — mobile payments. In turn, the technologies and strategies described in the report will lead to radical changes in personal finance for every consumer, merchant and financial institution.'   » Continue Reading

The PCI Security Standards Council has announced the availability of two Information Supplements providing further clarification for PCI DSS requirement 11.3 , regarding penetration testing, and Requirement 6.6 , regarding application code review and application firewalls. Both of these information supplements provide guidance to help merchants and service providers meet these two requirements in support of their PCI DSS compliance efforts.   » Continue Reading

The Kroger Co. has announced that 'beginning May 2, 2008, customers can receive free groceries through a gift card program available exclusively in Kroger stores. The program allows Kroger customers to exchange their tax refund or economic stimulus checks for a Kroger gift card with an extra $30.00, $60.00 or $120.00 added to it. Gift card amounts correspond to the payment amounts outlined by the Internal Revenue Service for the federal economic stimulus program.'   » Continue Reading

Merchant Link has announced that it has seen a significant increase in the adoption of its credit card payments security product, TransactionVault, by quick service, casual and table service restaurant organizations nationwide, including Perkin's, Zaxby's, Famous Dave's, La Madeline, and Ruth's Chris Steak House.   » Continue Reading

TSYS Acquiring Solutions has announced 'a partnership agreement with Royal Group Services designed to protect merchants, acquirers and independent sales agents (ISOs) from expenses resulting from a suspected or actual credit card data breach.'   » Continue Reading

Merchant Link has announced results of a survey on credit card security and PCI compliance among attendees of the recently completed 2008 Multi-Unit Restaurant Technology Conference (MURTEC 2008) finding that "corporate reputation and customer concerns regarding the security of their data are the primary worries in the hospitality industry in terms of credit card use among restaurants of all sizes and styles."   » Continue Reading

AdvanceMe, a provider of merchant cash advances for small and mid-sized businesses, has announced a milestone with RBS Lynk delivering almost $15 million in working capital to the RBS Lynk customer base over the last six months. Through a referral relationship, RBS Lynk expanded its product portfolio to include AdvanceMe's Merchant Cash Advance product, helping clients' access capital quickly, despite tightening credit markets.   » Continue Reading

Frontier Airlines this morning announced it had voluntarily filed to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code late last night. The airline is continuing normal flight operations today.   » Continue Reading

The National Association of Convenience Stores reports that convenience store industry sales reached a new high of $577.4 billion in 2007 (up 1.4 percent), but that profits dropped by $1.4 billion, 'largely because of higher credit card fees.' In its press release, NACS goes on to say that "the net effect is that the industry's credit card fees are now more than double the industry's pretax profits."   » Continue Reading

Shop.org has released The State of Retailing Online 2008, its 11th annual study conducted by Forrester Research of 125 retailers. The study found that 'online retail will continue to be a bright spot in the industry with retail sales rising 17 percent this year to $204 billion. Apparel ($26.6 billion), computers ($23.9 billion), and autos ($19.3 billion) will be the largest three sales categories.'   » Continue Reading

Vesdia has announced the expansion of its merchant-funded rewards network to include multi-channel merchants and service providers: ADT Home Security by Security Choice, DIRECTV, Hard Rock Cafe and Golfsmith. Vesdia says its network is 'the largest coalition loyalty program in the U.S. and consistently provides clients with measurable program growth in the marketplace.'   » Continue Reading

The Direct Response Forum (DRF), a trade association for payments professionals in the direct response marketing industry, has announced that it has begun accepting registrations for its 19th Annual Forum to be held in San Diego, Monday August 11 through Wednesday August 13.   » Continue Reading

MasterCard Worldwide has announced an agreement with The TJX Companies Inc. (TJX) to offer an 'Alternative Recovery Program to MasterCard issuers affected by the previously announced data breach of TJX. The agreement calls for TJX to provide up to $24 million to support an Alternative Recovery Program to settle claims made by issuers to recover costs and losses they claimed to have incurred in connection with the breach. Issuers must have previously filed claims and agree to the Alternative Recovery Program's terms to be eligible for compensation funded by the agreement.'   » Continue Reading

CompUSA has announced that it is now accepting PayPal as a way to pay for purchases made on the CompUSA.com website. "CompUSA is the latest in the Systemax family of brands to offer PayPal. PayPal is currently accepted in North America at TigerDirect.com, TigerDirect.ca and now CompUSA." More from Mary Anne Gillespie on The PayPal Blog.   » Continue Reading

Chockstone has announced SingleSwipe, calling it 'a new identification program that allows credit and debit card companies and merchants to tie merchant loyalty programs to a customer's existing credit or debit card.'   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Data Theft Carried Out On Network Thought Secure', Joseph Pereira writes for the Wall St. Journal about the recently reported payment card data breach at the Hannaford Bros. and Sweetbay grocery chains.

In an article titled 'Advanced tactic targeted grocer', Ross Kerber writes for the Boston Globe about how the data breach disclosed earlier this month by Hannaford Bros. Co. actually occurred. In a letter to Massachusetts officials, the company reported that malware had been installed on servers in each of its 300 stores. "The malware intercepted the "track 2" data stored on the magnetic stripe of payment cards as customers used them at the checkout counter." Hannaford had been certified as PCI compliant in late February. In 2005, Hannaford was featured for its migration to a Linux-based in-store POS environment.

The Wall St. Journal has an editorial this morning about the Credit Card Fair Fee Act introduced by House Democrat John Conyers of Michigan and Republican Chris Cannon of Utah. 'The Conyers-Cannon bill requires that any credit card company with more than 20% of the credit and debit market -- Visa has about 50% and MasterCard 25% -- negotiate for 90 days with a coalition of retailers on a mutually acceptable fee. (The retailers would gain an antitrust exemption for these deliberations.) If the parties can't agree, a three-person panel of "electronic payment judges" will "determine rates and terms" which shall be binding. That sounds like a price-control regime.'

Separately, today's New York Times editorial page had an editorial titled 'Plastic Card Tricks' saying that 'Washington needs to change the way these companies [credit card issuers] do business to ensure that consumers are treated fairly.' Further: 'Congress needs to address numerous unfair practices, including interest rates that skyrocket for no apparent reason and due dates that suddenly shift — forward — so that an unwary consumer pays late.'

The Federal Trade Commission has announced that TJX has agreed to settle charges that it engaged in practices that, taken together, failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security for sensitive consumer information. The settlements will require that TJX implement comprehensive information security programs and obtain audits by independent third-party security professionals every other year for 20 years. Full details available here.   » Continue Reading

In the UK, EAT, Commidea Ltd and Barclaycard Business have announced that EAT, a sandwich, soup and coffee shop, has become the first retailer in the UK to introduce a fully integrated contactless payment system. Using Commidea’s Ocius Chip & PIN solution with contactless technology, Eat will now be able to process both Visa (Paywave) and MasterCard (Paypass) contactless transactions for its customers using Barclaycard Business as their merchant acquirer.   » Continue Reading

For some time, Amazon.com has offered merchants Fulfillment by Amazon - where they could have Amazon hold their goods for shipment at Amazon's fulfillment centers. Now, Amazon's introduced a new Fulfillment Web Service that enables merchants to programmatically manage their inventories, replenishment and shipment activities using FBA. "Products that are fulfilled by Amazon qualify for all of Amazon's buyer shipping and customer promotions (such as free Super Saver shipping and Amazon Prime) and Amazon takes care of customer service and returns." More on the Amazon Web Services blog.

At its annual meeting today, Starbucks announced several new initiatives including adding a new rewards feature for registered users of its Starbucks Card. Starbucks says that currently one in seven customers uses the Starbucks Card to pay.   » Continue Reading

Dave Birch writes on the Digital Money Blog about a presentation given by Julian Niblett of Boots, one of the UK's largest retailers, at the New Payments Channels conference in London. Interestingly, Boots studied where in their stores contactless made economic sense, and where it didn't. But, perhaps even more interesting were Niblett's comments on the costs of cash acceptance vs. the cost of cards.

The Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Restricted Authorization Networks: Winner Takes All" by Tim Sloane, Director of Mercator's Prepaid Advisory Service. The report explores "how merchants and others can bring Prepaid Cards and Debit Cards to market, funded by Decoupled Debit and other mechanisms, to help consumers better manage their expenses and deliver meaningful savings - and therefore addressing this growing consumer demand. But most importantly, this report identifies how Restricted Authorization Networks can control how these cards are used in ways that were never before possible."   » Continue Reading

Hannaford Bros. Co., a Scarborough, Maine, supermarket chain with 165 stores has announced "containment of a data intrusion into its computer network that resulted in the theft of customer credit and debit card numbers. No personal information, such as names or addresses, was accessed or obtained." The AP reports that "about 4.2 million unique card numbers were exposed."   » Continue Reading

The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) has issued a press release favoring the legislation introduced today dealing with interchange fees. From the press release: "Today House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) introduced the "Credit Card Fair Fee Act," legislation that for the first time deals with the biggest credit card fee of all - the interchange fee, which grew to $36 billion in 2006."   » Continue Reading

The National Retail Federation says it welcomes "the introduction of landmark antitrust legislation that would address hidden MasterCard and Visa fees that cost merchants and their customers more than $40 billion a year." The Credit Card Fair Fee Act was introduced today by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich.   » Continue Reading

The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) has announced the results of its annual merchant fraud survey. "The survey was sponsored by CyberSource Corporation as part of its broader annual survey of online fraud benchmarks. The combined results show MRC Platinum Merchants are consistently outperforming other online merchants in controlling fraud and protecting valid customer orders."   » Continue Reading

Chase Paymentech Solutions has launched a new website designed to help small and medium sized businesses affordably accept credit card payments.   » Continue Reading

MasterCard has announced the immediate availability of a complimentary educational webinar developed to help merchants better understand the newly available PCI Data Security Standard Self-Assessment Questionnaire (PCI DSS SAQ) version 1.1 that has been updated and released by the PCI Security Standards Council.   » Continue Reading

The PCI Security Standards Council has announced that its updated Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) for merchants and service providers is now available.   » Continue Reading

Businesspundit.com points to an article by Charles Owen Kile Jr. in the Journal of Accountacy titled "Accounting for Gift Cards". "In practice, the reporting of gift card sales and breakage among retailers varies significantly and it is unclear what future action, if any, standard-setters and regulators will take toward unifying the range of practices."