News

August, 2014

• 6 August

  COMMENTARY: Chip, Signature, And Square—Perfect Together

  Rather than jumping to conclusions about the implications of Square Inc.’s decision last week to implement a Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card solution that forgoes PINs and instead relies on a signature at the point of sale, it’s important to first ask the question: Why would a payments disruptor and tech …
• 6 August

  Type of Merchant, Customer Base Dictate Which Merchants Should Act First on EMV

  With a major deadline arriving in October 2015, U.S. payments players are expected to be busy in the coming months converting systems to be compliant with the Europay-MasterCard-Visa chip card standard. But with liability for counterfeit card fraud shifting in 14 months to the party not prepared for EMV, how …
• 5 August

  Payments Companies Push ISVs And VARs To Move Fast To Sell Mobile Tech to Merchants

  Stressing such factors as the rapid growth of mobile commerce and the advantages of streamlined integration, representatives from Discover Financial Services, Mercury Payment Systems LLC, and PayPal Inc. on Tuesday urged a roomful of point-of-sale technology resellers to begin moving quickly on selling mobile payments to retail clients. “I would …
• 5 August

  Target’s Data Breach Costs Now Total $236 Million

  Target Corp. on Tuesday issued an update on its data-breach expenses for the second quarter that brings total costs to $236 million, including expenses in the first quarter and late 2013. The Minneapolis-based retailer expects gross breach-related expenses in the second quarter to be $148 million, offset by $38 million …
• 4 August

  Continuing a Consolidation Trend, Four Southern ACH Associations Will Merge Jan. 1

  Four regional automated clearing house associations in the South will merge Jan. 1 under the name of PaymentsFirst Inc. The merger may be the biggest one yet among regional ACH associations in terms of participants and furthers the long-standing trend of smaller, mostly state-based ACH organizations pooling their resources as …
• 4 August

  Merchant Warehouse Strikes Deal to Integrate PayPal into Its Genius Point-of-sale Platform

  Merchant acquirer and payment-technology developer Merchant Warehouse is adding PayPal acceptance to its Genius point-of-sale platform, the Boston-based company announced Monday. Merchant Warehouse’s Genius system enables merchants to accept payments and to manage services like loyalty, mobile commerce, gift, and rewards programs. PayPal is activated remotely, requiring no action by merchants. …

July, 2014

• 31 July

  MasterPass Now in 10 Markets Globally, Four More to Come, MasterCard CEO Tells Analysts

  Top executives at MasterCard Inc. on Thursday trumpeted the card network’s gains with MasterPass, its digital wallet, and downplayed the impact of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s ongoing conversion to Visa Inc. Introduced two years ago, MasterPass is now operating in 10 countries with “tens of thousands” of merchants and will …
• 31 July

  The Big-Ticket Mercury Acquisition Already Starts to Pay Dividends for Processor Vantiv

    Vantiv Inc.’s $1.65 billion acquisition in May of Mercury Payment Systems LLC appears to be paying off already. In the second quarter, Cincinnati-based Vantiv said Mercury accounted for approximately 5% of the payment processor’s net revenue growth. Vantiv’s second-quarter revenue increased 11.6% to $331.3 million from $296.9 million a …
• 30 July

  Having Built Its Own Processing Platform, TransFirst Prepares for a Partial IPO

  The big merchant acquirer TransFirst Inc. gave notice Wednesday that it is planning a partial initial public offering. Hauppauge, N.Y.-based TransFirst filed a registration statement, or S-1, with the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing its IPO plans and putting a tentative value of $100 million on the deal. The filing says …
• 30 July

  Big Man on Campus: Heartland Pays $375 Million for Higher-Education Payments Company TouchNet

    Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is paying $375 million to expand its position as a higher education payments provider. The Princeton, N.J.-based processor announced today it bought Lenexa, Kansas-based TouchNet Information Systems Inc. Heartland says this is its highest-priced acquisition to date. TouchNet provides a variety of payment services to …