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 appellate court on Tuesday reinstated a proposed class-action lawsuit over ATM pricing rules that independent ATM operators and consumers filed against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. in 2011 but a district court dismissed in 2013. The ruling originated with three lawsuits filed by the National ATM Council Inc., …

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 …

The Electronic Transactions Association, the national merchant-acquiring trade group, is ramping up its presence on Capitol Hill to stem the increasing regulation of the payments industry. The Washington, D.C.-based ETA recently spawned the creation of so-called payments caucuses in both the Senate and House of Representatives, chief executive Jason Oxman …

By John Stewart When the Internet, and then mobile and cloud-based technology, began to radically change the acquiring business, some independent sales organizations thought they could adapt by becoming software companies without changing the way they do business. They were wrong, and that mistake is costing them dearly, argues Rick …

By Jim Daly Retail ATM network owner and manager Cardtronics Inc. reported Tuesday morning that its biggest merchant customer, Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc., picked a corporate affiliate to run its U.S. ATM fleet when the leading convenience-store chain’s 10-year placement contract with Cardtronics expires in July 2017. 7-Eleven accounted for 17.5% …

Merchant attrition in the acquiring business fell to 21% in 2014, down from 22% in 2013. That may not sound like much, but in this business, where merchant processors and independent sales organizations struggle to replace each defecting client, it’s significant. The numbers come from a report released last month …

  Mobile POS devices may not displace entirely the traditional countertop POS terminal, but they could come close. It emerged six years ago among the smallest of merchants and had only one function: accepting credit and debit card transactions. But now the mobile point-of-sale device and its attendant software have …

  Many small merchants have no clue about EMV, and among those that do, many are unpersuaded. Here are some ideas to overcome those—and many other—hurdles before and after the liability shift. Inertia can work with you or against you. When it comes to persuading smaller merchants to adopt EMV-compatible …

The federal government now expects processors to be payments cops, says Andy Phillips, chief executive of an ISO that found out the hard way. Following the networks’ rules is no guarantee the government will think you’ve done enough. In the new world of payment processing, I’m now a cop. I …