The primary reason consumers and small-business owners visit banks is to cash or deposit checks, but mobile capture removes that purpose, says Gary Brand, director of source capture optimization at Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis.-based vendor of processing technology for financial institutions. “Something’s really happened, all of a sudden [banks …
Read More »As a Key Deadline Nears, Credit Card Interchange Settlement Inspires a Raft of Rhetoric
The rhetoric spewing from partisans on both sides of the massive credit card interchange-litigation settlement is heating up as a major deadline in the 8-year-old case approaches. May 28 is the last day the court overseeing the case will let merchants opt out of their share of monetary damages …
Read More »ISOs’ Authorization Costs Decline, But Other Processing Expenses Are on Their Way Up
Good news for independent sales organizations: authorization costs continued their long-term decline over the past two years, according to a recent industry survey. Not-so-good news: clearing and settlement costs have stopped declining, customer-service costs are rising, and processors are eyeing new fees to generate revenues from ISOs. Omaha-based The …
Read More »Tablet-Based Launches Come with Pricing Deals to Attract Merchants
The nascent trend toward tablets as cash-register replacements took several big steps forward this week, as technology players and at least one processor unveiled major promotions, including free transaction processing and other pricing deals, to entice small businesses to adopt mobile payments. On Wednesday, merchant processor Vantiv Inc. launched …
Read More »With ‘Chunky’ Deals in the Works, Vantiv Has High Hopes for its Litle E-Commerce Unit
Transaction volume at electronic-commerce processor Litle & Co. grew 39% in the first quarter, Litle’s new owner, Vantiv Inc., reported late Monday. Vantiv, a big merchant and card-issuer processor based near Cincinnati, said Litle contributed only one or two percentage points of Vantiv's 23% increase in merchant transactions from …
Read More »Inspired by Chase Merchant Services, Other Banks Mull Their Own Potential Deals With Visa
Visa Inc.’s decision to license a version of its VisaNet processing network to JPMorgan Chase & Co. generated controversy in merchant-acquiring circles when the two companies announced their deal in February, but now Visa says it is getting inquiries from other client financial institutions that may be interested in …
Read More »Nelms: PayPal Deal Helps Make Discover the ‘Alternative Network for Alternative Payments’
With a major expansion of its arrangement with PayPal Inc. due later this year, Discover Financial Services is now “the alternative network for alternative payments in the United States,” Discover chief executive David W. Nelms told an audience of merchant acquirers on Wednesday. Hinting that more deals similar to …
Read More »First Data Tells Merchant Acquirers That It Won’t Support PayPal Acceptance
Discover Financial Services on Tuesday named six prominent merchant acquirers among 50 committed to helping the network bring acceptance of leading online payment system PayPal to more than 2 million physical merchant locations by year’s end. But a notable missing link is No. 1 merchant processor First Data Corp., …
Read More »First Data Picks a Top Chase Executive As Its New CEO
Leading payment processor First Data Corp. reached outside the company over the weekend to tap Frank Bisignano, a veteran operations executive with experience at some of the nation’s largest banks, as its new chief executive officer. Bisignano, most recently co-chief operating officer at JPMorgan Chase & Co., replaces Jonathan …
Read More »PayPal Hikes Offline Merchant Count by 11% with First-Quarter Jump
Nearly 20,000 U.S. merchant locations now accept PayPal, up from 18,000 three months ago, according to data released on Wednesday in tandem with eBay Inc.’s quarterly earnings report. San Jose, Calif.-based PayPal Inc. is a unit of eBay. The roughly 11% jump in merchant acceptance for PayPal since eBay’s …
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