Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The growing interest of private-equity firms in merchant processors showed itself again Wednesday when the big independent sales organization Mercury Payment Systems Inc. disclosed that Silver Lake would take a 60% interest in the company. Meanwhile, private-equity executives were out in force at the Electronic Transactions Association annual meeting in …
April, 2010
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15 April
States Join the Interchange Debate While IRS Reporting Rules Loom
They've ebbed and flowed over the years, but attempts by states to regulate interchange and payment card acceptance rules are definitely flowing, according to merchant-acquiring executives. “It seems like every month we get a new bill introduced in a state legislature,” said panelist Nicholas W. Baxter, senior vice president at …
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15 April
A Bundled Approach to PCI Compliance for Small Merchants
As smaller merchants struggle with data-security requirements set by the bank card networks, some security firms are working on ways to simplify compliance. An example is Panoptic Security Inc., a Salt Lake City, Utah-based company that distributes its software through independent sales organizations and acquiring banks. It has started talking …
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15 April
ViVOtech Says Its Contactless PIN Pad Will Pave the Way for Mobile
ViVOtech Inc., perhaps best known as a maker of readers that enable contactless card transactions, this week plunged further into the point-of-sale business with the introduction of a PIN pad capable of processing contactless payments. The device, known as the ViVOpay 8100, brings the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company into closer …
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12 April
MasterCard Gets a New Boss, Signs E-Commerce Pact
MasterCard Inc. announced a notable pact with a technology company Friday that the No. 2 payment card network says would drive e-commerce transaction volume. That news, however, was overshadowed Monday morning when MasterCard announced that Ajay Banga, the company's president and chief operating officer, would replace long-time chief executive Robert …
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12 April
New MasterCard ATM Rates Will Crimp Income for Banks And ISOs
Independent sales organizations and financial institutions that deploy ATMs have suspected for weeks that MasterCard Inc. planned to cut the interchange income allowed on withdrawal transactions on its Cirrus network, but now the total cost of the move is becoming clear. The hit to U.S. ISOs alone could amount to …
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8 April
As 2-D Barcodes Gain Steam for M-Payments, a Novel Twist Emerges
The use of two-dimensional bar-code technology for mobile payments appears to be picking up momentum. On the heels of a major expansion of the technology, announced last week by Starbucks Coffee Co. and Target Corp., a startup company this week announced it is launching a so-called private beta for a …
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8 April
Eye on E-Commerce: Acculynk Courts ISOs; eBillme’s Walk-in Survey
Acculynk Inc., a processor of PIN debit transactions that take place on merchant Web sites, announced this week it is adding the capability of processing credit and signature-debit transactions as well. The new service, called PaySecure Plus, will rely on processor Elavon, a unit of U.S. Bancorp, to handle credit …
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8 April
ISOs Lukewarm About Sponsor Banks, Other Vendors, Survey Finds
More than a fifth of independent sales organizations claim to be ready to change their sponsor merchant-acquiring bank, according to a new Aite Group LLC report about ISOs' relationships with their vendors. A smaller but still substantial number also are likely to change some of their other vendors. From July …
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7 April
The ACH Bucks a Soft Economy As Transaction Volumes Rise
A soft economy didn't prevent automated clearing house transaction volumes from growing last year, though the rate of increase slowed, according to new data from NACHA?The Electronic Payments Association. The Herndon, Va.-based governing body of the ACH reports total transactions rose 2.6% to 18.76 billion from 18.29 billion in 2008. …