Transaction Processing

Issuers are generating less in interchange for PIN and signature debit card transactions than they were 10 years ago, according to the Pulse electronic funds transfer network’s 2015 Debit Issuer Study released Thursday. The study examined transactions made in 2014 from more than 70 debit issuers involving 147 million debit …

By John Stewart With the business of selling merchant accounts growing more technology-based every day, how are processors going to recruit new independent sales organizations that have the necessary expertise? For at least some processors, the answer lies in inducing independent software vendors, known as ISVs, to become ISOs as …

A federal judge on Tuesday nullified a pending settlement between American Express Co. and merchants in a class-action lawsuit over AmEx’s anti-steering rules because of improper conduct by a co-lead attorney for the merchants. The decision immediately cast a shadow over the $5.7 billion settlement Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. …

The broader business of point-of-sale technology has many concerns that include payments but aren’t limited to that function. These days, though, it may seem that payments—and especially EMV—is all this business talks about. This was certainly the case this week at RetailNOW, a four-day conference in Orlando, Fla., produced by …

By John Stewart It is a commonplace notion that unicorns are to be encountered only in myth. But in the world of venture capital, they are becoming increasingly numerous. While it was once considered extremely rare for a privately held startup to achieve a $1 billion-plus valuation, there are now …

Installations of mobile point-of-sale devices in the United States and Canada will hit 17.4 million in four years, forecasts 451 Research in its “Mobile Point of Sale: Smart Devices Earn a Growing Share of Global Payment Acceptance” report released Thursday. If it proves accurate, that forecast will yield a 155.9% …

By Jim Daly First Data Corp. on Wednesday reported modest second-quarter growth in its merchant-acquiring and issuer-processing segments thanks in part to the U.S. conversion to EMV chip card payments and reduced expense growth. In all, First Data reported a net loss of $26 million, a 24% improvement from the …

By Jim Daly Citing what they say were improper communications between two lawyers on opposing sides of a $5.7 billion settlement between merchants and Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., attorneys for a group of about 30 merchants gave notice to the networks Tuesday that they want to have the settlement …

By John Stewart and Jim Daly With products like its MasterPass digital wallet, MasterCard Inc. has stepped up its efforts to stake a claim in the emerging market for digital payments. But the company is loath to commit itself too soon to any particular technology, according to the card network’s …

Payments behemoth Visa Inc. has poured some cash into Stripe, an independent online-payments startup, which will be used to aid Stripe’s international expansion. The specific Visa investment was not disclosed. But adding in investments from Sequoia Capital and American Express Co. that were made alongside the one from Visa, Stripe …