Acquiring

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a sweeping credit card reform bill that leaves out retailer-backed regulation of interchange. The bill, which the Senate sent to the House Tuesday, includes a Congressional interchange study and could open the door to controls on gift cards. The House earlier …

The U.S. Senate didn't pass a credit card reform bill last week as many expected, but senators are expected to take up the issue again Tuesday. The question for the merchant-acquiring industry is whether the final bill, which is concerned with regulating credit card issuers' most controversial practices, also would …

The top two executives of merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. on Thursday painted a picture of a company on the mend in the wake of the big data breach it disclosed in January. But the recession and the far-from-over effects of the breach still took a toll on the …

A bill to establish an enforcement framework for licensed online gambling operators to accept wagers from individuals in the U.S. was introduced on Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. The legislation is designed to replace the controversial …

Specialty payment processor BankServ, one of the pioneers of remote deposit capture, is preparing a move into the mobile-payments market thanks to its recent acquisition of the assets of Commerciant LP. Houston-based Commerciant offers merchants wireless payments software and a unique wireless terminal that scans checks and takes credit card …

A payments-focused group of heavyweight merchants is emerging from obscurity to push for new standards to protect credit and debit card data. But just how these standards would complement or possibly conflict with the existing Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) remains unknown. The organization, called the Merchant Advisory Group, …

Hypercom Corp. reports it is starting to see interest building in a service that allows merchants to inject new encryption keys in their point-of-sale terminals through network connections, eliminating the need to visit stores or send the devices out to have the job done. “It's been a pretty substantial effort” …

The Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) is a favorite punching bag of merchants, but executives from Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. defended the set of security rules before an audience of independent sales organizations as the best tool available for keeping cardholder information safe from computer hackers. They also …

The White House is scheduled to dress down credit card issuers this week. That and current and possible bills in Congress increase the chances of new regulations on merchant acquirers, according to a lobbyist for the Electronic Transactions Association trade group of independent sales organizations and other merchant processors. Congress …

Ask most acquirers and independent sales organizations what keeps them up at night, and at or near the top of the list is the job of getting their smaller merchants to comply with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI). The security requirement, whose detailed mandates even larger merchants find …