There have been IPOs galore in the payment industry of late and merchant acquirer TransFirst is in the dock, and the acquisitions of independent sales organizations by bigger processors continues unabated. But there hasn’t been an acquisition of a big, publicly held payment processor by another in some time. That …

By Steve Norell I started in the acquiring industry approximately 20 years ago, and during those 20 years have seen and heard just about everything one can imagine about the way our products and services are marketed. That’s especially true when it comes to deceptive and fraudulent practices. During those …

By John Stewart Ever since the launch of Apple Pay more than a year ago, mobile wallets have followed a pattern of recruiting financial institutions to enable their network-branded credit and debit cards to work in the wallet apps. But retailers are getting in on this action, as well, with …

By John Stewart It was bad, but it could have been much worse. Just as the celebrated Cyber Monday online-shopping frenzy was gearing up to full blast, PayPal Holdings Inc.’s payment service, a major processor for e-commerce, began hiccupping. Merchants reported problems with processing orders and customers complained about long …

Visa Inc. on Tuesday reported U.S. EMV chip card statistics for October, the first month in which the payment card networks’ EMV liability shifts for point-of-sale transactions took effect. The numbers show EMV’s footprint is still small, but growing rapidly. There are now 180.6 million Visa-branded chip cards in the …

By Kevin Woodward The City Attorney for San Francisco has filed suit in California Superior Court against American Express Co., alleging the card brand continues to restrain merchants from steering consumers to other payment options. Filed Nov. 6, the suit seeks $2,500 per violation, which City Attorney Dennis J. Herrera …

By John Stewart In the wake of the arrival of EMV chip cards and ahead of the holiday shopping rush, the Shazam debit network has launched a mobile feature that lets cardholders disable their debit cards should they be lost or stolen. While networks like Discover Financial Services have advertised …

Leading U.S.-based ATM manufacturer NCR Corp. announced Thursday that affiliates of private-equity firm The Blackstone Group L.P. will invest $820 million into the company for a 17% stake. NCR says it will use the investment to help fund a $1 billion share repurchase and speed its transformation into an integrated …

By Kevin Woodward With no shortage of mobile-payments options available to users, backers of Android Pay and Samsung Pay are trying to entice consumers by making their services more broadly available and by offering rebates. Institutions using The Members Group, a credit-union service organization, soon will be able to enroll …

Merchant processor Optimal Payments Plc announced it has changed its name to Paysafe Group Plc. The move reflects the company’s direction following the closing of its Skrill acquisition in August. The deal bolstered the company’s stake in digital wallets. “This was a major milestone for the company, and although we …