Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The annual MidWest Acquirers Conference concluded Thursday in Chicago with a series of sessions addressing several hot-button payments issues. Here’s a rundown of the more salient remarks: —Whither the independent sales organization? With the fundamentals of the acquiring business rapidly turning towards mobile and cloud-based technology, ISOs are finding themselves …
Read More »Chastened ISO Execs Caution Colleagues on How To Avoid Regulators’ Ire
Two independent sales organization executives who ran afoul of government regulators cautioned their industry colleagues Thursday on how to stay out of trouble. The warnings came during a session at the MidWest Acquirers Association (MWAA) annual conference in Chicago titled “You, Me and the FTC: Personal Stories From Being in …
Read More »EMV and Updated PCI Rules Present Opportunities for ISOs ‘To Gain or Lose Business’
With the impending EMV chip card liability shift on Oct. 1 and the recent establishment of the newest version of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), independent sales organizations are at a critical juncture, according to a veteran industry executive. “This is an opportunity for ISOs to gain or …
Read More »Eye on Earnings: Chase, Wells Report Latest Merchant-Acquiring Numbers
JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported Tuesday that charge volume in its massive merchant-processing business grew 12% in the second quarter, and Wells Fargo & Co. said its merchant-related fee income rose 10%. New York City-based JPMorgan Chase said payment volume in its Chase Commerce Solutions unit totaled $234.1 billion versus $209 …
Read More »Bipartisan Senate Bill Would Ease Marijuana Businesses’ Access to Banking Services
A bill introduced Thursday with bipartisan backing in the U.S. Senate would prevent federal regulators from cracking down on banks that provide financial services to legal marijuana businesses. The bill, similar to one pending in the House of Representatives, aims to rectify the lack of access many recreational and medicinal …
Read More »Not Your Father’s ISO: How Tech Is Forcing Acquirers To Make a Crucial Choice
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 …
Read More »Cardtronics To Lose Its Biggest Customer as 7-Eleven Shifts ATM Operations to Affiliate
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% …
Read More »EMV Confusion Helps Lift Encryption to Top of Merchants’ Security-Tech List
By Kevin Woodward Encryption technologies, which mask sensitive card data with mathematically derived characters and numbers, appear to be the security method that resonates best with merchants. That’s the result of a Digital Transactions News survey that asked about EMV, tokenization, and encryption. Forty-five percent of respondents cited encryption, followed …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Common Errors in Merchant Funding And How To Fix Them
As I see it, there are three main areas of vulnerability for merchant cash-advance (MCA) providers: 1. Incorrectly assessing the risk. What systems do you have in place for being able to analyze and manage your risk? Many MCA funders come into the market with six months’ runway and then …
Read More »Global Payments Set To Debut AmEx’s OptBlue Program for Its Canadian Merchants
Processor Global Payments Inc. says it will offer American Express Co.’s OptBlue merchant-acceptance program to its Canadian merchants beginning June 24. Participation in OptBlue enables merchant acquirers and independent sales organizations to offer AmEx acceptance to small businesses and set the pricing through a one-stop-shopping option when they sell acceptance …
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