Competitive Strategies

Citing health reasons, First Data Corp. chief executive Jonathan J. Judge on Friday announced plans to retire. The unexpected retirement casts a cloud of uncertainty over the nation’s largest payment processor as it competes in a fast-changing payments industry and, down the road, prepares for a possible IPO or sale …

In sharp contrast to only a year ago, independent sales organizations and other merchant acquirers now rank revenue generation as their number-one goal for programs they offer to help merchants comply with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), according to a survey set to be released on Thursday. The …

The last mile is frequently the hardest part of any journey. The U.S. Treasury Department is wrestling with that phenomenon as it attempts to eliminate its remaining 5 million monthly checks for distribution of Social Security and other federal benefits by a looming March 1 deadline. Treasury’s Financial Management Service …

Atlanta-based InComm, a major provider of plastic gift card programs, will be gaining a bigger presence in the growing digital card market through its acquisition announced on Wednesday of Portland, Ore.-based Giftango Corp. Although both companies are involved in managing plastic and digital gift card programs for retailers, InComm had …

As we prepare to close out 2012, we thought we’d look back at the year’s major developments and pinpoint the ones that generated our biggest news stories. Here’s our list, arranged chronologically. Not surprisingly, given the events of the year in electronic payments, the list is dominated by mobile-payments and …

Mobile payments are the all the rage in the banking, retailing, and software industries, but the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is cautioning banks to keep a short leash on their mobile-payments vendors. The FDIC also warned in a recent report that banks’ role in mobile payments could be reduced as …

In the wake of its path-breaking partnership with PayPal Inc., Discover Financial Services is ready to do more deals with other companies that will add transaction volume or build its acceptance footprint, chief executive David Nelms indicated on Thursday. Nelms also told stock analysts that growth in the Discover-owned Pulse …

Leading U.S.-based point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc.’s retreat from its role as merchant acquirer for its Sail mobile-payments platform for micro-merchants last week after only seven months is triggering intense debate among independent sales organizations and payments-industry veterans. The crux of the debate concerns whether processing for tiny merchants …

Seven months after VeriFone Systems Inc. launched Sail, its mobile-payments platform for micro-merchants, the San Jose-based point-of-sale terminal maker and payments software provider is stepping back from its role as an acquirer for Sail merchants and will instead revert to its traditional role of solutions provider. The announcement from chief …

For ATM owners struggling to attract consumer traffic, half a loaf of surcharge revenue may be better than none at all. A new program called Dollar$top from processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc.’s (FIS’s) NYCE electronic funds transfer network will put the concept of a limited fee to the test …