What’s Trending Today — Sept. 22 Recap

Starbucks’ Mobile Momentum

Starbucks’ mobile momentum is brewing strong as the company announced today (Sept. 22) that its Mobile Order & Pay feature was expanding to more stores nationwide — with international offerings on the horizon.

The coffee company said that the option is now available in more than 7,400 stores by using the Starbucks App that’s available on iOS or Android devices. Next on the mobile ordering list will be the rollout in select stores in the U.K. and Canada in October.

What’s Next For First Data’s (Public) Future?

Next week could see payments firm First Data begin the first steps to raise as much as $3 billion in an initial public offering.

An IPO of that size would represent the biggest offering so far this year. First Data, which was taken private by private equity firm KKR in 2007 for a roughly $26 billion price tag, could file documents offering up a price range for its common stock, unnamed sources told WSJ. That range would likely be between $20 billion and $25 billion, and proceeds raised from the issuance would be used to pay down the $21 billion in debt on its books.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock — The EMV Deadline Is Coming (and why consumers aren’t ready)

Retailers and banks might be racing to meet the Oct. 1 EMV liability shift deadline, but most consumers are not ready for the shift, just yet.

With less than a month left before the liability shift kicks in, six out of 10 consumers reported to have either not received their chip-enabled card or are in the dark about the use and purpose of their new card, according to an ACI Worldwide survey, which sampled over 1,000 U.S consumers.

The survey results reflect how slowly banks are wading into issuing EMV cards, with 59 percent of respondents with one or more credit or debit cards reporting that they have still not received a chip-enabled card.

Retail Group Denies EMV Compliance Claims

In one of the latest volleys over EMV compliance — just as the deadline is really, finally, almost here — the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) is challenging claims that retailers are not up to snuff in the transition.

Chain Store Age reported Monday (Sept. 21) that RILA’s efforts have come in the wake of an article inThe San Diego Union-Tribune in which Randy Vanderhook, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, stated that retailers have lagged in activating terminals, despite the fact that millions of consumers have EMV-compliant cards at the ready.

In a statement, Brian Dodge, executive vice president of RILA, said that “retailers are making a multi-billion dollar investment to protect customers and reduce credit card fraud. Unfortunately, the claims being presented by the financial services industry represent an attempt to mislead reporters and consumers, rather than provide the facts surrounding the upcoming Oct. 1 liability shift.”

Circle Gets NY Bitcoin License

The bitcoin journey has hit an important milestone, as one firm has been licensed to offer digital currency services in New York — a first for the industry.

Boston-based firm Circle Internet Financial Ltd. was granted the license — known, perhaps appropriately, as a “BitLicense” — by the New York Department of Financial Services. The BitLicense itself will allow the company, and others that follow Circle Internet, to expand and attract customers to their currency services, while also mandating compliance with anti-money laundering and other security rules.

Take It Or Leave It? Consumers Weigh In On The Penny

The next time you offer someone a penny for their thoughts, step back and rethink your meager offer of copper. Nobody wants your penny – or do they?

The Harris Poll released Tuesday (Sept. 22) finds that a majority of Americans (using a sample of nearly 2,300 adults queried in July) do not want to abolish the lowly one-center, with some sort of fondness for copper firmly in place. Maybe because there’s, well, so many of them around. Proponents for the cent’s end complain that they actually cost more to make than they are worth.

The latest poll numbers let respondents offer up their two cents: 51 percent of people oppose giving up the penny, 29 percent are for the phase out. Those numbers show less support for keeping the change than had been seen in 2008, when 56 percent polled by Harris supported the penny and only 24 percent had been against keeping it around.

Will Ad Blockers Drive Mobile Commerce Innovation?

Could the rise of mobile ad blockers be the “killer app” that mobile commerce has been looking for all of these years? MPD CEO Karen Webster weighs in.

Ad blockers got the Internet buzzing last week, mostly as the result of Apple’s decision to include ad-blocking capabilities in its iOS 9 release. Dozens of articles made their way around the Internet bemoaning the “unintended consequences” of Apple’s decision. An Atlantic magazine story pondered the downside of an ad-free Internet and the simultaneous disappearance of publishers who rely on ad revenues to keep their virtual doors open. Fortune raised a similar question and even mused whether using an ad blocker is morally wrong. The New York Times documented the backlash over Apple’s decision to allow consumers to block ads with iOS 9.