By Jim Daly Global Payments Inc., the biggest processor swept up in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s April lawsuit against allegedly fraudulent debt collectors, came out with guns blazing Thursday in its first response to the CFPB’s complaint. “The CFPB’s attempt to hold Global [Payments] responsible for the actions of …

By Jim Daly Processors accused by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last month of aiding allegedly fraudulent debt collectors by providing them with payments services are beginning to file their answers to the federal charges. At least one of them is accusing the CFPB of “regulatory overreach” in the style …

Independent sales organization Total Merchant Services Inc. hopes a newly altered agent-compensation plan will result in more merchants using EMV-compatible point-of-sale terminals. The U.S. payment card industry is migrating to EMV chip cards, requiring that merchants use compatible terminals. As a way to motivate its sales agents and get more …

The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this spring climbed on a regulatory bandwagon that has federal agencies attacking disfavored industries by going after the payment processors that serve those industries. The CFPB named four merchant-acquiring companies as defendants in a lawsuit against six people and their associated debt-collection companies. The …

The allure of recurring revenue combined with low interest rates and investors prospecting for new assets are contributing to a potentially prosperous time for sellers of merchant portfolios. That’s the assessment from a presentation Tuesday at the Southeast Acquirers Association annual conference in New Orleans. Also, the Electronic Transactions Association …

By Jim Daly The Canadian government’s move last week to strengthen its Code of Conduct for the payment card industry and the European Union’s approval in March of rock-bottom interchange rates for credit and debit cards has observers wondering if more regulation is in store for the U.S. merchant-acquiring industry. …

Independent sales organization CoCard Anderson and bill-payment software company Systems East Inc. are targeting insurance, government, and utilities merchants in a new program announced Tuesday. Merchant processing is not as widely adopted in these merchant categories as in retail, making them attractive prospects, CoCard says. In the deal, Systems East, …

By Jim Daly PayPal Inc. says the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau might sue it over its credit products by June 30. The possible lawsuit would stem from an investigation dating to 2013, when the CFPB in August of that year filed so-called civil investigative demands (CIDs) for documents, testimony …

  It’s not enough to sell payments services to churches and charitable organizations. They want assurances their unique needs will be met. It might seem counterintuitive, but merchant-services profits are to be had serving nonprofit organizations. But it’s not as simple as knocking on doors or harvesting online leads. It …

The threat of assuming fraud losses carries some weight with  merchants, but not as much as some might think.  Converting many of these merchants to EMV will be a struggle.   Independent sales organizations, acquirers, and processors of all sizes are about to embark on a massive education campaign designed …