• The Home Depot Inc. filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. for alleged lax security practices and a preference for higher-margin signature authentication with EMV chip credit cards over more secure PIN authentication, according to the Associated Press. A MasterCard spokesperson told the AP that …
Read More »TSYS Buys Rest of Joint Venture and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• Payments veteran Michael J. Schwartz was appointed interim chief executive of mobile-payments and -marketing firm Spindle Inc. upon founding chief executive Bill Clark’s resignation. Schwartz comes to the company from Fiserv Inc. Clark had been CEO since 2011. • Processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) purchased the 45% stake …
Read More »Citing ‘Unacceptably High’ Fees, Wal-Mart To Stop Accepting Visa Cards in Canada
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s 400-store Canadian unit announced Saturday that it will no longer accept Visa payment cards in its stores beginning with phased discontinuance starting July 18. “Following an evaluation of credit card transaction fees in Canada and the rest of the world, we have concluded the fees applied to …
Read More »Cardtronics Secures More CTA Locations and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• ATM deployer Cardtronics Inc. reached a new agreement with the Chicago Transit Authority under which it will place almost 40 new ATMs at CTA passenger stations, replacing machines already at those stations, and install more machines at additional stations. The move, which expands on an agreement reached with the …
Read More »After Tussling With Visa, Durbin Challenges MasterCard Over an Issuer Fee
U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin on Thursday asked MasterCard Inc. to explain an obscure fee with a clunky name that the senator believes penalizes MasterCard issuers when merchants exercise their transaction-routing rights under the Durbin Amendment with MasterCard debit card purchases. But MasterCard says issuers benefit whenever its cards are used, …
Read More »The CFPB Sues Processor Intercept Corp. and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• A bill by U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, to replace 2010’s Dodd-Frank Act” would hurt consumers and Main Street businesses,” the Merchants Payments Coalition said, because the measure would do away with the financial reform law’s Durbin Amendment that regulates debit card interchange and sets debit card transaction-routing requirements. …
Read More »VeriFone’s EMV Honeymoon Ends; Certification Delays Crimp Earnings
The U.S. conversion to EMV chip cards has produced a windfall for VeriFone Systems Inc. over the past couple of years. But despite record revenues in the quarter ended April 30, delays in getting EMV equipment certified contributed to sharply lower profits and financial expectations for the leading domestic point-of-sale …
Read More »More Canadian Banks Enable Apple Pay and other Digital Transactions News briefs
• Merchant processor iPayment Inc. has agreed to promote acceptance of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Samsung Pay mobile-payments service to merchants and resellers. Merchants can receive a merchant kit that includes window decals and other point-of-purchase items promoting Samsung Pay acceptance. Samsung announced its Samsung Pay reseller program in January. …
Read More »Harbortouch Swaps Private-Equity Partners in Deal Valued at $500 Million-Plus
Merchant-services company Harbortouch Payments LLC has a new private-equity investor in a deal valued at more than $500 million. Searchlight Capital Partners L.P. announced Wednesday it made an investment in Allentown, Pa.-based Harbortouch. Jared Isaacman, Harbortouch chief executive and founder, says the deal is valued at more than $500 million, …
Read More »The PCI Council Updates its Payment-Processing Software Rules
The PCI Security Standards Council on Friday released version 3.2 of its Payment Application Data Security Standard, which sets rules for payment-processing software. The new PA-DSS aligns with the recently updated main security standard, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard version 3.2. Today’s update was expected, as the Wakefield, …
Read More »
