Competitive Strategies

• Merchant processor SignaPay Ltd. announced the official launch of its PayLo software, which allows merchants to collect what the company calls a “small” service fee on each transaction processed on merchants’ point-of-sale terminals. The fee is waived if the customer uses cash or a gift card. SignaPay says the software is …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews As retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. ramp up their mobile wallets, the tech companies that offer general-purpose SimplyTapp Inc. developed the original HCE technology. Google, now the main subsidiary of Mountain View, Calif.-based Alphabet, included HCE in late 2013 in Android 4.4, also …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico Group is bringing its POS app store based on its Telium Tetra operating system to the United States this year, company officials tell Digital Transactions News. POS apps enable merchants to load and use business software than can help with employee scheduling, manage …

• Abilene Diagnostic Clinic has adopted the One Bill solution from health-care payments processor InstaMed, allowing patients to deal with a single statement embracing all ADC locations. • In related news, Change Healthcare, a specialist in analytics software, introduced Personalized Communications for its billing and payments solution. The new service is aimed at billing …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Not all private-label charge and prepaid card programs are equally successful, and so neither will be the proprietary mobile wallets recently launched by merchants. Factors that are likely to lead to a successful app include the strength of the retailer’s brand, its commitment to either convenience …

• TouchSuite, a merchant-services company operated by American Bankcard LLC, announced it purchased Merchant Bankcard Systems of America, which has approximately 1,000 merchants in its portfolio. Terms of the deal, which closed Feb. 7, were not disclosed. • Middleware provider Datacap Systems Inc. said it completed level 3 EMV certification with …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews A year ago, Visa Inc. expanded its Visa Ready program beyond mobile point-of-sale terminals to support tokenized payments on a wide variety of Internet-connected devices. On Thursday, the payments company took the next step in that plan, announcing a collaboration with IBM Corp. that will allow …

• First Data Corp. expanded its deal with ShopKeep, a cloud-based point-of-sale provider, that makes ShopKeep’s POS software available through its distribution network. ShopKeep also will incorporate First Data’s payment processing and security tools. This includes the Clover Go software developer kit and enables ShopKeep software to operate on Clover hardware. • …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews ATM manufacturer NCR Corp. on Tuesday unveiled its line of SelfServ 80 Series, machines NCR says are designed for “today’s mobile-first, omni-channel consumers.” The line currently has 4 models, and several large banks and mid-sized credit unions have already begun deploying them. “There are in the thousands …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews PayPal Holdings Inc., which hasn’t been shy about laying out big money to enter new businesses, said on Tuesday it will shell out $233 million to buy TIO Networks Corp., a cloud-based processor that will deepen PayPal’s penetration of the bill-payment market. The acquisition is expected …