Acquiring

The merchant-acquirer encryption and tokenization train picked up speed this week when Fifth Third Processing Solutions, one of the nation's biggest payment processors, announced it would offer its merchants end-to-end encryption and tokenization systems for protecting cardholder data. Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Processing's technology comes from Voltage Security Inc., the Palo …

Discover Financial Services now has more than 100 bank card merchant acquirers booking small to medium-sized merchants for its network, the company reported today at an investor presentation in New York City. Discover predicts that those acquirers will enable Discover acceptance in 97% of their new merchant sales in 2010's …

With the economy still shaky, some established online merchants are branching into new product lines in search of incremental revenue, and that can create problems if the merchants don't work closely with their acquirers, Bob Nadeau, group executive at Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, tells Digital Transactions News. In a wide-ranging …

Interchange regulation of the kind being advocated by national merchant groups just isn't getting much traction on Capitol Hill. In the latest example, the National Retail Federation on Monday issued a statement saying it was disappointed that U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd's much-awaited proposal for regulatory reform in …

Michael D. Capellas, the former Compaq Computer Corp. and MCI chief executive who became chairman and chief executive at First Data Corp. in September 2007 when private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. took the huge processor private, is taking a new position at KKR. Replacing him as chairman and …

Getting an annual assessment to determine their compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard costs big merchants an average of $225,000, but some pay $500,000 or more and others much less, according to a new research report by Ponemon Institute LLC. The report also says that only about 2% …

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty submitted his budget plan to Parliament late last week, and his proposals have merchants celebrating. That's because the government is floating the idea of regulating the payment card networks and, by implication, credit and debit card interchange. “There was good news for retailers in yesterday's …

NetDeposit LLC, which this week announced it will support a mobile remote deposit capture product from San Diego-based Mitek Systems Inc., expects to have the service ready for financial-institution clients “some time” in the third quarter, says Chris Styga, executive vice president of the financial-service solutions group for the Salt …

In its effort to become a major supplier for merchants seeking to use their iPhones from Apple Inc. as payment card-accepting terminals, VeriFone Holdings Inc. already has announced a major marketing initiative for its PAYware Mobile system that includes a software application on Apple Inc.'s iTunes App Store and a …

Processing volume hit some turbulence last year, but that didn't stop Universal Air Travel Plan Inc. from pursing its goal of adding merchants to its airline-owned network. Washington, D.C.-based UATP last week reported that LQ Management LLC's La Quinta Inns & Suites has become the first hotel chain in the …