Acquiring

How much does it cost to acquire a merchant? On average, $693. That’s the word from Adil Consulting, an Omaha, Neb.-based firm specializing in merchant acquiring. That figure, as an average, is highly influenced by a number of variables, Adil Moussa, principal, tells Digital Transactions News. Banks, for example, have …

With much of its international business under pressure because of the strong U.S. dollar and weak economies in many countries, VeriFone Systems Inc.’s North America region once again proved to be the point-of-sale hardware and payments software provider’s saving grace. Powered by the U.S. conversion to EMV chip card payments, …

A new update of a list detailing where public authorities have intervened in payment card merchant pricing and rules shows only one country, Malaysia, was added over the past year, but authorities took new regulatory measures in places on the predecessor list, particularly the European Union and the United States. …

Payment processor First Data Corp. on Tuesday named a big cast of underwriters for its planned initial public offering of stock. Meanwhile, a German processor reportedly is joining private-equity firms in making a play for United Kingdom-based Worldpay Ltd., which is one of the world’s largest merchant acquirers and has …

As the Oct. 1 EMV liability-shift date nears, and consumers begin receiving even more credit and debit cards bearing EMV chips, educating them and merchants on how the cards are used takes on even greater importance. Just last week, Target Corp. introduced a video and a series of questions-and-answers explaining …

Publicly traded payments companies fared slightly worse than the major market indexes Monday in a continuation of a Wall Street selloff triggered by investor worries about China’s economic situation, overvaluation of securities, and the future of U.S. interest rates. Fifty companies tracked by Digital Transactions News fell 4.03% from Friday’s …

A significant chunk—44%—of small-business owners have no knowledge of the EMV liability shift coming Oct. 1. That finding from “Small Business EMV Readiness,” a report released by Javelin Strategy & Research this week, suggests that many might be in for a shock when their merchant-processing statements arrive in November and …

While many payments firms have complained about the expensive and time-consuming process of getting state money-transmitter licenses, and, more recently, of potentially needing licenses to operate virtual currencies, the regulatory pendulum occasionally swings the other way. Late last month, Illinois quietly dropped a 2013 cease-and-desist order against merchant processor Square …

Many news accounts of PayPal Holdings Inc.’s spinoff from parent company eBay Inc. noted that PayPal’s market capitalization was in the $50 billion range, but few provided context on where that placed the company among its publicly traded peers. Turns out, PayPal instantly became the fourth-largest payments player, trailing only …

By John Stewart A new service from Square Inc. that accelerates merchants’ access to their funds in return for a 1% fee is likely to gain popularity among the small sellers that primarily use Square for transaction processing, according to some observers. That may hand Square a key advantage in …