Acquiring

A major merchant trade group on Monday fired an opening shot in what is likely to be a long, hard battle over credit card acceptance costs. The NACS, an association for convenience-store operators, released a report claiming that card discount fees in general—and especially credit card fees–are partly responsible for …

Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. says it believes fewer than 1.5 million card numbers were taken from its processing system in a data breach disclosed on Friday. Meanwhile, Visa Inc. has removed Global from its list of merchant processors compliant with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), but Global …

A controversial New Jersey law that claims unused gift card balances as state property after two years and requires gift card sellers to obtain buyers’ ZIP codes is taking heavy fire. If it survives a repeal effort and court challenges, however, opponents fear gift card issuers will leave the state …

Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. confirmed late Friday afternoon that it sustained a data breach following press accounts earlier in the day of a breach variously reported as affecting 50,000 to potentially millions of payment cards. In a press release, Atlanta-based Global “announced it identified and self-reported unauthorized access into …

Groupon Inc.’s acquisition of a Web site that lets processors bid for merchant contracts represents a big opportunity for the online rewards giant but also underscores the dependence of such services on the merchant-acquiring business, a researcher who follows acquiring says. In the deal, announced on Friday, Groupon bought FeeFighters, …

n “The bankruptcy court in question agreed with our motion that the escrow account is for the consumer,” Trent Voigt, chief executive of JetPay LLC of Carrollton, Texas, told Digital Transactions News moments after a hearing ended in the case of Southern Sky Air & Tours LLC, doing business as …

Vantiv Inc. began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday with the symbol VNTV, having priced its shares late on Wednesday at $17, the mid-point of its estimated opening range. The Cincinnati-based payment processor saw its initial offering of 29.4 million shares raise just shy of $500 million. …

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The news leaked earlier this week, but PayPal confirmed on Thursday it has created a mobile-acceptance product to compete with the myriad such services already on the market from hardware and software companies, as well as merchant processors. Still, PayPal’s product, called PayPal Here, may stand out from the crowd …

Accusing Visa Inc. of a “lack of regard” for its members, the Electronic Transactions Association merchant-acquiring trade group sent a letter to the card network March 7 asking that it delay implementation of a new fixed fee until acquirers have time to reprogram their back offices and make other adjustments. …