The National ATM Council Inc. opened its seventh annual convention Oct. 15, 2019, at the Las Vegas Planet Hollywood Hotel and Convention Center. The three-day show focused on the ATM industry's next 50 years and beyond. In a nod to U.S. ATMs, which turned 50 this year, the conference began with presentations on video gaming kiosks, cash discounting and route management optimization.
Consumer concerns about privacy and security have slowed mobile payments adoption in the United States, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, which found ecommerce has grown three times faster than traditional payment cards and transactions initiated on smartphones. Survey data was based on 1,178 consumers who paid by smartphone in 2018. "Although 88 percent of Americans who conducted a financial transaction had a smartphone capable of making a mobile payment in 2018, mobile payment adoption has lagged [behind] industry projections, and consumers still tend to opt for traditional cards not linked to a mobile platform," researchers wrote.
Square, which got its start offering cut-rate card processing for small merchants, is moving to a pricing scheme that more closely mirrors traditional card acceptance fees, and it’s drawing the ire of representatives of smaller merchants in the process. Square is dropping its flat rate charge of 2.75 percent for tapped, dipped or swiped transactions, and will now charge 2.6 percent plus 10 cents per transaction. The new fee structure is expected to usher in huge price hikes for merchants that use Square to process small-ticket items.
Two separate surveys by the Harris Poll and Experian Information Solutions Inc. show increasing fraud and decreasing consumer confidence. The Harris Poll survey, conducted on behalf of Computer Services Inc. and published Oct. 7, 2019, found 92 percent of consumers are concerned about exposing personal confidential data when they transact online. Experian found most consumers place a high degree of confidence in passwords despite growing adoption of more advanced forms of security and authentication.
Worldwide contactless ticketing could exceed 1 billion transactions in five years, according to a study published Oct. 10, 2019, by ABI Research. Transportation agencies are migrating from memory-based cards to chip cards with enhanced security and fast response times, ABI researchers found. Analysts expect memory card shipments to decline from 175 million in 2018 to 144 million in 2024. Use of cards with built-in microcontrollers is expected to rise from 240 million units in 2018 to 385 million in 2024, according to the study. 
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