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Many merchants that accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program transactions face an important decision between now and Sept. 21. By then, participating merchants in the SNAP no longer are eligible for subsidized payment terminals because of a change in law mandated by Congress. Until this change, states were allowed to …
Read More »PCI Council Puts Trustwave’s Payment-Software Assessment Practice ‘In Remediation’
The PCI Security Standards Council has placed Trustwave Holdings Inc.’s business of assessing payment-processing software for compliance with a major security standard “in remediation,” an official term that means probation. Chicago-based Trustwave is one of the biggest firms, if not the biggest, in the business of assessing merchants and processors …
Read More »Researcher Proclaims the ‘Tender Truth’ About the High Cost of Cash
Merchants like to gripe about the cost of payment card interchange and processing expenses, but relatively few have done a close analysis of what it really costs to accept the various tender types, according to an Aite Group LLC researcher. If they did, most would conclude that debit cards are …
Read More »First Data Goes All in on U.S. Gambling Growth with the Full-Deck PayLucky Product Suite
With an eye to capturing a share of the potential $2.6 billion in U.S. online gambling revenue expected by 2017, payment processor First Data Corp. launched PayLucky, a suite of existing products for gambling and gaming providers, the company announced today. The suite, which includes the Clover point-of-sale system, prepaid …
Read More »Canada’s Optimal Payments Buys Two ISOs To Gain U.S Foothold in E-Commerce Payments
With an eye on expanding its international payments capabilities, Optimal Payments Plc bought two U.S. independent sales organizations that cater to e-commerce merchants, the Montreal-based company announced Tuesday. n Meritus posted 2013 revenues of $74.4 million, and Global Merchant Advisors $8.3 million. Both company names remain in place, Lewin says. …
Read More »GoDaddy’s Get Paid Integrates Invoicing and Other Business Tools With Payments
Online domain company GoDaddy’s new Get Paid service combines payment acceptance for small businesses from up to three payment companies with invoicing and expense-management capabilities. That caters to demands from merchants wanting more than payment processing, says one industry analyst. Get Paid draws its payment data from PayPal, Stripe, …
Read More »Merchants That Opted out of the Big Interchange Settlement Will Get a Second Chance
Merchants that elected not to take a share of the $5.7 billion settlement to resolve a massive credit card interchange case against Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and some banks will be given a chance to opt back into a share of the damages under a plan being crafted by lawyers. …
Read More »New MasterCard Rules on Fee Disclosures May Catch Many Payment Processors Unaware
Two MasterCard Inc. rules governing fee changes and disclosures may catch many in the payment industry unaware even though the rules first became known in December. That is the assessment of attorneys Howard Herndon and Josh Rosenblatt at Frost Brown Todd LLC, a Nashville, Tenn.-based firm. “Typically, acquiring banks and …
Read More »In Wake of Payday-Lender Suit, Holder Makes the Case for Operation Choke Point
Operation Choke Point, a U.S. Department of Justice effort to shut down fraudulent merchants by going after payment companies that provide network access, shows no signs of going away any time soon, despite growing merchant and processor frustration with the initiative. Earlier this month, that frustration gave rise to a …
Read More »Amazon’s First Smart Phone Harbors a Big Mobile Commerce Promise For the Retailer
Rumors from the past few years that Amazon.com Inc. was building a smart phone bore fruit Wednesday when the online retailer revealed the Amazon Fire, a mobile device built to ease the mobile commerce experience on its Web site. It may herald another way to shop Amazon, but it …
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