Apple joins a growing list of ways friends and family can send money to each other. Will Apple find success with their version?

Should Credit Unions Renew?

[Editor's Note: This article was previously published on CU Insight and has been modified.]

It’s hard to believe that three years has passed since Apple surprised the mobile payments world by stating that iPhone 6 users can make payments with the touch of a finger, beginning on October 20, 2014. About 500 credit unions and banks were among the initial issuers who agreed to a three-year term to participate, meaning their contracts are coming up for renewal. Many financial institutions signed on shortly thereafter. According to PYMNTS.com, the terms of the contract required the issuers to give up to Apple a half penny for every debit transaction or 0.15 percent of every credit transaction conducted through Apple Pay. These fees were over and above charges already assessed by the card networks and the processors. But those financial institutions, mostly larger or forward thinking credit unions and banks, wanted to be on the forefront of what was highly touted to be the evolution to the long-awaited “year of the mobile payments.”

Cloud-based solutions provide convenience to consumers and cost-savings for merchants.

Not true! Chip cards are solving the problem they were intended to solve.

A number of leading news organizations recently reported that a security flaw in chip cards has been discovered, questioning the security benefits offered by EMV technology. One article suggests there are ways to completely undo the security the chip-enabled cards provide. The articles pointed to research presented by two people from NCR, a payments technology leader. Their research was presented at Black Hat, a widely attended hackers convention where research, security flaws, and hacks are presented to the public and to fellow security experts with the goal of closing security gaps before they can be exploited.