- From the Oops Department: First Data Corp. early Thursday quickly removed from its Web site an inadvertently posted press release saying it had a deal to acquire independent sales organization BluePay Holdings Inc. “First Data confirmed that it is currently in discussions with BluePay with respect to a potential transaction, but that a potential transaction has not yet been finalized,” a First Data follow-up statement says.
- The Clearing House, a bank-owned payments firm, said it has become one of the first token service providers certified by Mastercard Inc. in the U.S. market and as such will provision and manage Mastercard-issued tokens on behalf of banks.
- American Express Co. announced that chairman and chief executive Kenneth I. Chenault, 66, will retire Feb. 1 after 37 years with the company, including the past 16 as CEO. AmEx named vice chairman Stephen J. Squeri as Chenault’s successor; Squeri joined AmEx in 1985 as a manager in its traveler’s check group and currently heads the Global Commercial Services and shared-services groups.
- AmEx also reported third-quarter results that include a 7% year-over-year increase in U.S. card-billed business to $176.4 billion and a 6% rise in discount revenue to $4.77 billion.
- NACHA, the governing body for the automated clearing house network, said nearly 2 million same-day ACH debits valued at almost $1.5 billion were made from Sept. 15, when the service launched, through Sept. 30. That’s an average of more than 178,000 per day at an average payment of $650.
- Alipay said its mobile wallet will be accepted at Poynt terminals across North America. The agreement with the point-of-sale terminal startup follows similar deals the Chinese mobile-payments service has struck with U.S. POS vendors to support Chinese travelers. Alipay claims 520 million registered users in China and other countries.
- In related news, merchant processor North American Bancard said it is supporting Alipay on its Electronic Payment Exchange platform.
- The Australian debit network eftpos will use token-service technology from Rambus Inc. to support Apple Pay in that country.
- In related news, Cornercards, a prepaid program manager in the United Kingdom, has integrated Apple Pay into its platform.
- London-based payments provider Payza announced its Global ISO Program, aimed at allowing independent sales organizations in more than 190 counties to earn commissions by marketing Payza to online businesses.
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