Responding to complaints about problems in implementing a new federal law requiring acquirers to report merchants’ electronic payment transactions, the Internal Revenue Service announced on Wednesday it will delay penalty provisions and withholding requirements for a year, until Jan. 1, 2013. Acquirers still are required to file the new 1099-K …
October, 2011
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27 October
Federal Agencies Turn a Watchful Eye on Third-Party Payments Providers
Already the subject of new debit card regulations, the payments industry is coming in for more scrutiny from the federal government. A Federal Trade Commission official told attendees at a merchant-acquiring conference on Thursday that the government has formed a task force to monitor third-party payment-services providers. The feds’ …
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26 October
Apriva Poised to Offer a Mobile Wallet Aimed at Guarding Acquirers from ‘Outsiders’
The mobile-wallet race, which has attracted a slew of entrants in recent months, is about to get more crowded on fears that established merchant acquirers could be elbowed out of the nascent mobile-payments business. Apriva Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based provider of wireless technology for payments, will launch in November …
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26 October
With Numbers up, Visa Execs Touch on Strategies to Keep Network Dominant
Confirming other findings that payment card usage is picking up in the U.S., Visa Inc.’s credit and debit card dollar volume rose 9% in the network’s fourth fiscal 2011 quarter ended Sept. 30 to $516 billion from $474 billion a year earlier. Payment transactions increased 7.3% to 10.5 billion. Visa’s …
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25 October
Payment Firms’ Returns Belie the Economic Gloom
Shadows darken the recent economic news, but early third-quarter reports from payments-industry companies paint a much sunnier picture. The big card-issuer and merchant processor Total System Services Inc., for instance, on Tuesday said it was increasing its dividend by 43%, its first dividend increase in five years. Last week, Visa …
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20 October
More Retailers Offer Virtual Gift Cards, But Could Do a Better Job with Them, Report Finds
With the holiday season weeks away, more major retailers are now offering so-called virtual gift cards. But few make the experience of buying, sending, and redeeming the digital payment products easy or pleasant, according to a report issued this week. Some 59 of the 100 largest online merchants, ranked …
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19 October
PayPal Forecasts $3.5 Billion in ’11 Mobile Traffic While NFC Simmers
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19 October
Report: Poor Payments Practices Could Cost Top Online Retailers Potential Sales
More and more shoppers are turning to e-commerce, but online merchants’ payment practices leave them poorly positioned to exploit this trend for sales, according to a recently released report. Notably, the biggest online and multichannel retailers meet on average only 36% of criteria for payment options, according to Javelin …
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19 October
PayPal Getting “Steak Ready Before the Sizzle” on POS Moves, eBay Boss Says
PayPal Inc. will pilot its latest move to the point of sale with an undisclosed merchant this quarter, add more merchants early in 2012, and establish merchant pricing for the service over the next three to six months, eBay Inc. chief executive John Donahoe told stock analysts on Wednesday. …

