Acquiring

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews With more than 3 million renters enrolled in an online rent-payment service, Entrata Inc.’s desire to optimize its payment-card acceptance costs is paramount. That’s why Lehi, Utah-based Entrata is working with Visa Inc. on an improved payment and authorization program for the multifamily-housing industry. Announced Thursday, the …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Merchants would like nothing more than to decipher what they call the “mysteries” of the payments universe, a select group of them told attendees Thursday at the Western States Acquirers Association conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. These mysteries, they said, include knowing whom to call when a problem …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The dispute between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Visa Inc. over payment card acceptance costs intensified Thursday when the retailer’s Walmart Canada unit announced that it will extend its ban on Visa credit card acceptance from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to its 16 stores in the province of Manitoba. …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews With malware and hacker attacks on payment card-accepting devices increasing in sophistication, the PCI Security Standards Council has announced updated rules for protecting such devices. “The updates are designed to stay one step ahead of criminals who continue to develop new ways to steal credit and debit …

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. signed the Best Buy Co. Inc. electronics chain to accept the Chase Pay mobile app in its nearly 1,400 stores, on its site, and in-app. Chase Pay is live with some e-commerce merchants and is expected to become available in stores and in-app later in …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Two million U.S. merchants accept EMV chip cards at the checkout almost a year after the card brands made merchants also liable for counterfeit card use. That tally is a 468% increase from Oct. 1, 2015, the date of the liability shift, says MasterCard Inc., which provided …

• MasterCard Inc. issued its latest U.S. EMV progress report; the network says it has 2 million chip-active merchant locations and that 88% of MasterCard consumer credit cards now have chips. • Processor Elavon announced it is launching a tablet-based point-of-sale product in Canada in conjunction with talech, a POS …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews An eyebrow-raising consumer class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in the United Kingdom against MasterCard Inc. over payment card acceptance costs has parallels with U.S. card litigation, and like its American cousins, the British lawsuit faces an uncertain future. The suit seeks £14 billion ($18.6 billion) in damages, the biggest …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Tech companies like Square Inc. made their reputations by rolling out simple card readers that linked to Apple Inc.’s

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Not thoroughly knowing merchants and submerchants harbors peril for payment facilitators, and that’s one risk the Electronic Transactions Association hopes to alleviate. The ETA, a Washington-based trade group representing the merchant-acquiring industry, expects to release a set of underwriting guidelines for payment facilitators soon. According to Visa …