Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
The practice of giving away point-of-sale payment terminals, which started out as a tactic to attract salespeople, has become a huge phenomenon in the merchant-acquiring business that threatens the profitability of many industry firms, particularly smaller independent sales organizations more reliant on hardware revenues than larger acquirers. That's the conclusion …
Read More »TJX’s Settlement with Visa Casts Light on Murky World of PCI Penalties
The settlement The TJX Cos. and Visa Inc. announced Friday not only shows the retailer is well on its way to disposing of the myriad problems arising out the intrusion into its computer system that potentially compromised nearly 100 million credit and debit cards, but it also gives a rare …
Read More »18 Months on, Discover Says Its Acquirer Program Is on Target
Nearly a year and a half after first enlisting bank-card merchant acquirers to sign small and mid-size merchants for Discover acceptance, Discover Financial Services LLC says the program is doing just what the company intended. “We’ve seen excellent results,” Matt Johanson, vice president of acquirer relations at Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover, …
Read More »Heartland Sues Micros, Chase Paymentech over Restaurant Transactions
A courtroom food fight of sorts has broken out between big merchant processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc. and a leading hospitality-industry technology provider supported by a network gateway owned by No. 1 merchant acquirer Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC. Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland today said it has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit …
Read More »Profit Squeeze, Interchange, and PCI Top Acquirers’ Gripe List
Results from an Aite Group LLC survey of merchant acquirers and independent sales organizations released on Monday show that processors consider “margin compression,” high interchange, and dealing with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard as the top three challenges facing the acquiring industry. The results, part of a report called …
Read More »An EFT Summit Helps Costco Weigh Options for Web-Based PIN Debit
In a development that could lend considerable momentum to efforts to bring PIN debit to the Internet, Costco Wholesale Corp. is investigating at least three technologies that would allow the retailing giant to accept PIN debit cards for payment on its Web site, according to sources familiar with the matter. …
Read More »Saddled with Post-IPO Debt, First Data Shaves Costs with Layoffs
The ax is falling at First Data Corp. two months after the huge processor's $29 billion leveraged buyout by private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data announced Thursday that it is cutting 6% of its workforce, or about 1,700 employees. Thanks to recent acquisitions, however, …
Read More »E-Commerce Fraud Rate Holds Steady, But Fraud-Control Costs Go Up
Online fraud rates are holding steady but the cost of fraud is going up as e-commerce grows and companies hire more people to weed out suspect orders, according to CyberSource Corp.'s 9th annual e-commerce fraud survey. The merchant processor and risk-management firm's recent survey of 318 American and Canadian retailers …
Read More »Consumers And Wall Street Yawn at the Biggest Breach Yet
Off-price retailer TJX Cos. Inc. might hold the dubious honor of being the merchant where the nation's worst breach of payment card data occurred, but you'd never know it by looking at the company's latest financials. Revenue and profits are up, and executives made only passing reference to the breach …
Read More »PCI Council: Software Security Guidelines To Be a Standard
In a move long expected by software developers, merchant processors, and others, the PCI Security Standards Council this week said it is adding a new standard for point-of-sale software based on Visa Inc.'s set of best practices for card-processing applications. The action is aimed at strengthening the software component of …
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