Acquiring

Brick-and-mortar merchants?and restaurants in particular?pose the biggest risk when it comes to card-data compromises, while point-of-sale systems based on personal computers as well as those hooked up to broadband connections are at significantly greater risk. That's according to new data released by AmbironTrustWave, a Chicago-based company that performs security audits …

First Data Corp. announced Tuesday that it would process the merchant portfolio affiliated with Puerto Rico-based banking company Popular Inc.'s Banco Popular North America unit. The portfolio provides card-processing services for an undisclosed number of BPNA's 50,000 small-business customers in the United States. Banco Popular had outsourced the file to …

Large merchants whose card transactions are chiefly derived from physical stores, rather than the Internet, will now face stricter requirements for proving compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, according to an expert observer. With Visa USA this week introducing a revision of the volume bands by which it …

The simmering battle over card interchange, which up to now has been fought mostly in the courts, found a new battlefield in the U.S. Senate Wednesday as opponents and supporters of the controversial fee testified before that body's Judiciary Committee. The occasion was a hearing dubbed, “Credit Card Interchange Rates: …

Processing giant First Data Corp. soon will launch an initiative aimed at furthering its ties with the high-margin sector of the acquiring market controlled by independent sales organizations by offering ISOs a new terminal and unified pricing for all four major general-purpose card brands, sources tell Digital Transactions News. The …

In marketing coup for Discover Financial Services LLC, Dollar Tree Stores Inc. has agreed to accept cards issued on Discover's network exclusively in about 2,100 of its 3,100 stores across the country. The deal, which takes effect immediately, means the Cheseapeake, Va.-based chain, which is part of a fast-growing retail …

Discover Financial Services LLC's new merchant-processing pact with leading payment processor First Data Corp. that involves small and mid-sized merchants is just the first of more deals Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover plans to strike with big merchant acquirers to expand acceptance of the No. 4 card brand while simultaneously reducing costs. …

The product has been available for only two weeks, but Google Inc.'s online payment service has already won considerable favor with at least some Internet merchants and companies that process online transactions. Meanwhile, some analysts caution that even if Google Checkout, the online search giant's name for its long-expected entry …

Visa USA Inc. is releasing a security alert in response to an increase in data breaches it has detected among small and mid-sized restaurants. In reviewing data from the last few months, Visa saw “there's been an uptick in incidents from this sector” compared to previous time periods, says Martin …

Of 232 large U.S. merchants identified by Visa USA in 2004 and 2005, some 23% now comply with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), but 73% are projected to be in compliance by the end of the year “based on progress reports,” says Michael Dahn, president of Volubis Inc., …