Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
With five new mandates for merchant acquirers and processors to meet by 2010, Visa Inc.'s Payment Application Best Practices, a set of standards governing payment-processing software, are becoming ever more tightly aligned with the comprehensive Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) promulgated by the major card networks. But mandates may …
Read More »Eye on Earnings: MasterCard, Heartland, Online Resources
The flow of third-quarter earnings reports from payments companies continued this week with MasterCard Inc. reporting a hefty increase in transaction volume, revenues, and profits, while fast-growing merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. weighed in with a 20% increase in processing volume. And the chief executive of bill-payment processor Online …
Read More »With a Grip on Costs, TSYS Continues Its Post-BofA Recovery
Bolstered by cost controls and its growing international business, payment processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) on Monday reported profits rose nearly 27% on a revenue increase of not quite 4%. TSYS also said operating margins are up more than 3 percentage points this year to 25.6%. Columbus, Ga.-based TSYS …
Read More »Eyeing the Point of Sale, Bill Me Later Readies Test for Core Service
Bill Me Later Inc. will work with two to three merchants starting next month to test an extension of its online, credit-based payments service to the physical point of sale. If the test yields good results, the Timonium, Md.-based processor will likely launch a commercial service by the middle of …
Read More »Retailers Challenge the Networks’ Card-Data Storage Requirements
A leading retailer trade group on Thursday called for the payment card networks to stop forcing merchants to store credit card numbers, in effect challenging banks and the networks to take more responsibility for preventing data thefts. In a letter to the PCI Security Standards Council, an organization the networks …
Read More »Merchant Group’s Report to Lawmaker Triggers Interchange Tussle
A merchant trade group and at least one bank card network are exchanging fire again this week over the fees merchants pay to accept cards. Triggering the skirmish this time was a press release and report prepared by the Merchants Payments Coalition as a follow-up to a July 19 Congressional …
Read More »Revolution Money Expects to Gain Traction Early with Merchants
The electronic payments venture formerly known as GratisCard Inc. added more muscle this week with a free person-to-person payments service, a credit card, new bank partners, and a new name to boot. Now called Revolution Money, the payments system founded by an investment firm created by America Online Inc. co-founder …
Read More »It’s Labry up And Bailis out As KKR Completes Its First Data LBO
It wasn’t just another Monday for processor First Data Corp. The company started its new life as a private company by completing its widely watched, $29 billion leveraged buyout, and it installed a new management team under new chairman and chief executive Michael D. Capellas. Edward Labry, the head of …
Read More »TJX Settlement Leaves the Bigger Card-Security Issues Unsettled
Off-price retailer TJX Cos. Inc. late Friday announced it had settled the consumer class-action lawsuits it faced in the wake of a security breach that compromised nearly 46 million payment card records in its computers, but big-picture issues facing card networks, processors, and merchants about the best ways to enhance …
Read More »Discover Adds Chase Paymentech, Says More Acquirer Deals Coming
With its announcement on Thursday that it has added Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, the nation's largest merchant acquirer, to its stable of bank card acquirers offering acceptance to small and mid-sized merchants, Discover Financial Services LLC further reduces what was once a yawning gap between itself and the bank card …
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