Transaction Processing

A layman would have a hard time equating a ban on credit-card surcharges with repression of free speech, but that was the crux of the argument Jan. 10 between lawyers for merchants and the state of New York as they debated for about an hour before before the U.S. Supreme …

• Processor Vantiv Inc. reported its Merchant Services unit increased net revenue in the quarter ended Dec. 31 14% to $412 million from $363 million in the year-ago quarter on a 13% rise in transactions and 1% increase in net revenue per transaction. For all of 2016, Merchant Services’ net revenue jumped …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Vantiv Inc.’s

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday announced a consent order that requires Mastercard Inc. and UniRush LLC, program manager of the prepaid RushCard, to pay $10 million in restitution to cardholders and a $3 million civil fine as a result of an October 2015 processing glitch …

Mastercard Inc.’s key operating and financial metrics all grew in the fourth quarter, and president and chief executive Ajay Banga on Tuesday said he expects them to continue growing despite the political turbulence created by President Donald Trump’s new administration. In the United States, total fourth-quarter credit and debit card …

• Merchant acquirer Square Inc. announced a promotion that waives processing costs for small businesses on more than $12,000 in Apple Pay charge volume. It will give free processing on Apple Pay transactions for small-business customers that enroll this year in a promotion that includes purchase of Square’s contactless and EMV chip card reader …

Merchant processor Vantiv Inc. has agreed to offer a mobile point-of-sale platform from CardFlight Inc. The platform, called SwipeSimple, includes an EMV reader, a mobile app for iOS and Android, and a back-office reporting portal. New York-based CardFlight says the devices will be co-branded with Vantiv’s branding and will be …

A San Francisco analytics company with access to transaction data on 3 million consumer credit and debit cards says usage of Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payment service rose steadily in 2016. TXN Solutions Inc. also says that among brick-and-mortar merchants Apple Pay usage is highest at New York City-area pharmacy …

Independent sales organization Total Merchant Services Inc. has added its Groovv POS system to its free hardware program, a move that places all of its products in the program. Prior to this week’s announcement, only point-of-sale terminals were part of the program, says Woodland Hills, Calif.-based TMS. This should make it …

Credit card numbers were involved in just under one-fifth of the 4,000-plus data breaches worldwide reported in 2016, data-security services provider Risk Based Security Inc. reported Wednesday. RBS says the latest release of its annual Data Breach QuickView found that 4,149 data breaches occurred or became publicly known in 2016, …