Acquiring

Retriever Payment Systems Inc., a Houston-based independent sales organization, announced today its longtime president and chief executive, William H. Higgins, is stepping down and will be replaced by Thomas A. Wimsett, chief executive of Iron Triangle Payment Systems. Iron Triangle, Louisville, Ky., acquired Retriever earlier this year. Higgins will remain …

Though they are not named as defendants in the antitrust case filed today by Kroger Co. and six other retail chains against Visa International and Visa U.S.A., MasterCard International and individual member banks of both bank card networks could find themselves named in separate actions later, according to one of …

The new chief executive of Visa U.S.A. could meet with a top official of the National Retail Federation and the Merchants Payments Coalition as early as September to discuss interchange and other issues, according to a spokesman for both merchant organizations. John Philip Coghlan, the former Charles Schwab & Co. …

Despite an apparent willingness by the new chief executive of Visa U.S.A. to meet with merchant representatives on such thorny issues as interchange pricing, some observers say the bank card association's basic position toward the retailer community is unlikely to change. John Philip Coghlan, who took over yesterday as president …

Merchant complaints about credit card interchange pricing, which culminated last week in a class-action antitrust suit against the bank card associations and major banks, rest on a fundamental misunderstanding of how the interchange mechanism works, says a former Visa U.S.A. executive and payments-industry expert. The pricing system, indeed, allows for …

The merchants that last week filed a class-action antitrust suit against major banks and the bank card associations seek more than to collect damages for what they regard as anticompetitive behavior. Indeed, according to the lead attorney representing them, they hope their case will lead to sweeping reform of the …

Declaring the need for litigation to bring credit card interchange rates under control, five small merchants today filed a class-action antitrust suit against Visa, MasterCard, and at least seven major banks. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, alleges the banks and their card …

United Bank Card Inc. is introducing two new weekly-payout bonus programs for independent sales organizations and increasing payment frequency on a third incentive program to weekly, as well. The Hampton, N.J.-based acquiring processor says it has begun paying an incremental $30 to $40 to ISOs and sales agents for each …

The major breach of credit card account data revealed over the weekend, the latest in a string of such incidents over the past six months, may lead to tougher enforcement of data-security standards by the card companies, experts say. The breach, which exposed cardholder names, account numbers, and card verification …

The introduction in Canada of a bank-sponsored commercial payment service allowing consumers to buy goods from e-commerce merchants with their PIN debit cards is sparking widespread interest among retailers, according to Moneris Solutions Corp., the first processor to handle transactions for Interac Online. Moneris has been processing Interac Online payments …