News

April, 2014

• 1 April

  Banks That Sued Trustwave and Target Have Second Thoughts and Withdraw Lawsuit

  Two banks that sued Target Corp. and data-security services provider Trustwave Holdings Inc. in the wake of Target’s massive data breach have withdrawn their federal lawsuit after filing it only a week ago, leaving payments-industry observers wondering why they brought the action in the first place. In separate motions filed …
• 1 April

  Using Payment Card Data, Index Brings Personalized Shopping to In-Store Customers

  E-commerce retailers have a unique advantage over their brick-and-mortar counterparts. They typically know quite a bit about a shopper’s purchasing habits, and that helps them create personalized offers that bring back customers to spend more. Index, a San Francisco-based company, hopes to give large brick-and-mortar retailers a tool to enable …
• 1 April

  Following Star, Accel, and Pulse, NYCE Selects Visa’s EMV Debit Technology

    Debit network NYCE says it will use Visa Inc.’s common application identifier technology on chip debit cards, marking yet another regional debit network’s acceptance of a critical component to enabling Europay-MasterCard-Visa chip card acceptance in the United States. This is NYCE’s first formal EMV license, says Fidelity National Information …

March, 2014

• 31 March

  Mercury Payment Systems Files Registration Statement for Possible IPO

  The merchant-acquiring industry might soon get another publicly traded company should independent sales organization Mercury Payment Systems Inc. follow through on plans to sell a minority stake in the company. n Mercury Payment Systems Inc.’s operating subsidiary, Mercury Payment Systems LLC, currently is 62% owned by an affiliate of private-equity …
• 31 March

  Square Market Accepts Bitcoin As Good News/Bad News Pattern Continues for Currency

  The up-and-down course Bitcoin has followed in recent months continued on Monday as Square Inc. announced it has started accepting the digital currency on Square Market, the online marketplace it unveiled last June. The news lent some legitimacy to Bitcoin just as the currency was reeling from an Internal Revenue …
• 27 March

  Eye on Bitcoin: It’s Not a Currency, the IRS Says; Jumio Launches Security Network

  By Linda Punch Those looking for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to give Bitcoin legitimacy as a currency when the agency issued its guidance earlier this week were sorely disappointed. The IRS said the digital cash will be taxed like property, not currency. But the quest for legitimacy may be …
• 27 March

  New Law Enforcement Tactic Could Snare ISOs and Acquirers in Quest To Catch Bad Merchants

    A historical shift in how some federal financial law-enforcement agencies view the payments industry is under way, and it’s not one that bodes well for the industry, Jason Oxman, chief executive of the Electronic Transactions Association, told attendees at the Southeast Acquirers Association conference this week in Atlanta. Dubbed …
• 27 March

  It’s Wal-Mart vs. Visa in Yet Another Payment Card Interchange Battle Royal

  They’ve met in court before, and it looks like they’re going to meet again: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the No. 1 retailer, against Visa Inc., the No. 1 payment card network. As usual, the subject is interchange and payment card acceptance rules. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart is suing Visa for alleged violations …
• 26 March

  Merchant Warehouse’s Opticard Purchase Intended To Enhance Small Business Products

    Merchant Warehouse Inc. has bought gift and loyalty provider Opticard and has plans to offer its services as part of bundled transaction services to merchants. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Opticard, which will continue to operate independently, sells gift and loyalty card services to small businesses. Merchants can use Opticard programs to …
• 26 March

  Target Clarifies Number of Consumers Affected by Breach, Claims Data Security Improving

  Target Corp. told a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday that the overlap in the number of consumers affected by the two-headed monster of its data breach may be 12 million or more. The nation’s No. 2 general retailer also said it is improving its data security in the wake of the …