Acquiring

Despite the hoopla surrounding EMV acceptance, and the constant promotions from acquirers and payments providers touting EMV-capable equipment, at least one acquirer, Square Inc., continues to believe there is a market for magnetic-stripe readers. A direct-mail piece from Square mailed late last week touts its magnetic-stripe reader along with its …

• More than 120 retailers, including Wal-Mart, Target, Kroger, Best Buy, and 7-Eleven, signed a letter urging the U.S. House of Representative’s Financial Services Committee to reconsider the elimination of the Durbin Amendment that would happen if two pending bills become law. • After a three-week trial, a Superior Court judge …

A new National Retail Federation survey found that 57% of retailers that had installed EMV chip card terminals in their stores claim they’ve been waiting for up to six months or even longer to get their equipment certified. Conducted in May and June, the survey also found that 48% of respondents …

The acquiring business is accustomed to a slow rate of change, but that deliberate pace is masking radical underlying shifts in how merchants handle payments and whom they deal with for processing services, according to research at First Annapolis Consulting, Annapolis, Md. Change comes so slowly in this business that …

• American Express Co. plans to roll out an online loan platform this year that will challenge other small-business lenders, including Square Inc. and On Deck Capital Inc., Bloomberg reported. • Independent sales organization Pace Payment Systems announced it is working with @Pay LLC on an integrated text-to-pay service. • …

• ATM network operator Cardtronics plc, formerly Cardtronics Inc., completed its plan to re-domicile in the United Kingdom following approval of the plan by shareholders June 28. Cardtronics’ North American headquarters will remain in Houston, while its European headquarters will be in London. The company’s stock will continue to trade …

It was great while it lasted, but it looks like the chip card party is over for VeriFone Systems Inc., the leading U.S.-based point-of-sale terminal maker, at least for now. The U.S. conversion to EMV chip cards had produced a North American revenue windfall for VeriFone over the past couple …

• In a huge legal development for the payment card industry, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned a lower court’s 2013 approval of a $7.25 billion settlement of a merchant class-action lawsuit accusing Visa, MasterCard, and some banks of antitrust violations in setting credit card interchange. The appellate …

• In a huge legal development for the payment card industry, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned a lower court’s 2013 approval of a $7.25 billion settlement of a merchant class-action lawsuit accusing Visa, MasterCard, and some banks of antitrust violations in setting credit card interchange. The appellate …

Citigroup Inc. on Wednesday announced it has struck a definitive agreement to sell its institutional Prepaid Card Services unit to Munich, Germany-based Wirecard AG. The deal is significant in that it will give Europe’s second-largest payment processor a toehold in the U.S., and it marks the retreat by another big …