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The Penn Station East Coast Subs submarine-sandwich restaurant chain says 59 of its 238 locations are now “potentially affected” by a debit and credit card data breach. Parent company Penn Station Inc. first said when it disclosed the breach June 1 that 43 franchisee-owned stores possibly were affected, but the …
Read More »By Mating GoPayment with QuickBooks POS, Intuit Could Steal a March on Square
Intuit Inc.’s announcement on Tuesday that it has integrated its GoPayment mobile-payment processing application with its QuickBooks Point of Sale 2013 software is expected to make GoPayments more appealing to small businesses than rival products from the likes of Square Inc. and PayPal Inc. Earlier this week, Square announced that …
Read More »With New Retail Deals, Square Doubles Locations That Sell Its Card Readers
Merchant processor Square Inc. doubled the number of physical stores at which its now-famous payment card reader for mobile devices can be purchased with Monday’s announcement that the reader is available at Walgreen Co., Staples Inc., and FedEx Corp.’s FedEx Office stores. The three new merchants collectively add 10,000 locations: …
Read More »Groupon Doubles Down on Its POS Thrust with Acquisition of Hospitality App Startup
Groupon Inc. redoubled its efforts to penetrate the point-of-sale market with its acquisition of New York City-based software startup Breadcrumb, whose product lets restaurants run transactions on iPad tablets. The deal, announced on Tuesday, follows news that the Chicago-based daily-deal giant is testing a mobile-acceptance service in and around San …
Read More »Reports Indicate Groupon Is Joining a Crowded Field of Mobile-Acceptance Players
Just as payments executives were preparing to plunge into the Memorial Day holiday weekend, reports emerged that Groupon Inc. is testing a mobile-acceptance application in and around San Francisco. The reports, which are based in part on a solicitation received via e-mail by a merchant, indicate that the Chicago-based daily-deal …
Read More »Card-Not-Present Processor Litle Reports Durbin Has Cut Debit Interchange in Half
Online merchants and other card-not-present retailers that have so-called interchange-plus agreements with their acquirers are enjoying significantly lower transaction costs thanks to the Durbin Amendment, if research from processor Litle & Co. posted on Wednesday is any indication. Litle’s numbers indicate its client merchants have seen interchange costs cut in …
Read More »PayPal Signs 15 New Retailers for POS, Plus Terminal Makers and App Developers
PayPal Inc. on Thursday announced that 15 more retailers had joined its point-of-sale initiative, which means the No. 1 alternative-payments provider is now more than three-quarters of the way toward meeting its stated goal of having 20 national retailers accepting PayPal at physical stores by the end of 2012. PayPal …
Read More »PCI Council’s Latest Mobile Guidance Doesn’t End Freeze on App Approvals
The PCI Security Standards Council on Wednesday published guidance on how merchants can accept card payments through smart phones and tablet computers while protecting sensitive cardholder data. The guidelines, however, do not bring to an end an 18-month-old freeze the council has imposed on approvals of software applications for mobile …
Read More »Big-Box Retailers Like Wal-Mart Remain Wary of Network EMV Plans
There’s no federal edict to replace fraud-prone magnetic-stripe credit and debit cards with the more secure EMV chip card, but the payment card networks have unveiled various plans in the past year to encourage U.S card issuers, merchant acquirers, and merchants to board the EMV train. Exactly how a U.S. …
Read More »Most Acquirers Support EMV Programs, But April 2013 Deadline Has Them Nervous
The re-terminalization of the merchant point of sale to accept EMV chip cards could generate more than $6 billion in revenues for independent sales organizations and other merchant acquirers, but the changeover is fraught with competitive and operational risks, according to a new research report by Aite Group LLC. Aite …
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