Competitive Strategies

The Electronic Transactions Association went on record Tuesday supporting the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s proposed limited-purpose national bank charter for financial technology companies, but a national trade group of small banks “expressed strong concerns” about the idea. The opinions expressed by the ETA and the Independent Community …

Retailers wondering about the role of smart phones in their stores might take this figure into account: 36% of U.S. shoppers purchase via a mobile device frequently, and consider it a part of their regular purchasing behavior. That’s the finding from a recent DMI Inc. survey. DMI is a Bethesda, …

• Merchant processor iPayment Inc., along with its parent company iPayment Holdings Inc., announced a refinancing with holders of its senior secured notes that company officials say should result in a “substantial deleveraging” of the company and enable it to add services and products. • Equinox Payments LLC said it supports Android Pay …

Leading retail ATM network owner and operator Cardtronics plc announced expanded agreements Tuesday with the big drug-store chain Walgreens and banking giant Citigroup Inc. that will put Citi’s brand on more than 1,000 Cardtronics ATMs in Walgreens and Duane Reade stores in some key markets, including New York City and …

The price of Bitcoin, which soared to heady heights at the end of 2016 only to drop somewhat over the last two weeks, has been much on the minds of payments observers looking to the digital currency as an intriguing new way to pay. But is Bitcoin a medium of …

Point-of-sale terminal maker Ingenico Group is among many payments companies making announcements Monday at the National Retail Federation’s annual Big Show in New York City. France-based Ingenico says its ePayments division and its research arm Ingenico Labs now offer payment-enabled messaging bots for e-commerce merchants. Bots are an artificial intelligence …

The announcements about new point-of-sale and mobile-payment systems and related services came fast and furious Monday at the National Retail Federation’s annual Big Show underway in New York City. • Samsung Electronics America, Inc. and independent sales organization Total Merchant Services Inc. announced the availability of TMS’s Groovv POS Flex, …

• Payment technology provider MagTek Inc. introduced tDynamo, a compact terminal that accepts chip and magnetic-stripe payment cards as well as contactless transactions in either fixed or mobile configurations. • USA Technologies Inc. said its ePort Connect Platform’s G0-S series has been certified on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network. USAT’s ePort devices …

Marketing campaigns delivered to shoppers’ smart phones have long been seen as a promising way to drive both in-store traffic and mobile payments, and during the recent holiday season one company ran a test to find out just what kind of results retailers could expect. Swirl Networks Inc., a 6-year-old …

First Data Corp.’s newest division, the Integrated Solutions Group, is designed to entice software developers to create tools that hook into the giant processor’s payments platform. Announced Friday, the division is meant to foster ties between the Atlanta-based processor and independent software vendors, value-added resellers, software developers, and systems integrators. …