Acquiring

Bank card acquirers are increasingly tacking on fees to handle American Express Co. transactions at terminals they deploy for merchants, a tactic that may work in their favor as AmEx signs on more banks as issuers of the T&E company's products. That's among the major findings of the most recent …

TransFirst, a Dallas-based merchant processor, expects its acquisition of the third-party processing business of Fifth Third Bank Processing Solutions to drive down its transaction costs and give it a sharper edge when it comes to pricing. The deal, announced yesterday and expected to close April 1, will add 90 million …

Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co., a Charleston, S.C.-based chain of supermarkets with stores in South Carolina and Georgia, has adopted a payment system secured by biometrics primarily to increase its share of technologically savvy, white-collar customers. “It sends a message that we're trying to be cutting edge,” says David Schools, senior …

MasterCard International took a $763.5 million charge against earnings in 2003 to account for its share of the settlement of the massive Wal-Mart class-action suit, documents filed yesterday reveal. As a result of the charge, the bank card association sustained a $385.8 million loss last year, compared to net income …

With Internet merchants increasingly demanding transaction capabilities beyond credit cards, acquirers and processors are starting to look into ways to simplify and standardize the introduction of such payment alternatives as electronic checks, debit cards, and third-party billing. The latest such effort comes from the nation's biggest transaction processor. Denver-based First …

Information Architects Corp., a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based provider of Web-based employee-screening technology, has announced it is entering the market for electronic point-of-sale transactions secured by cardholders' fingerprints. The company says it has acquired a U.S. patent (6,270,011 B1) that covers a fingerprint-scanning methodology for credit cards via scanners deployed at …

Seven founding members announced today the formation of a new regional association serving merchant-level salespersons, ISOs, vendors, processors, and financial institutions in the western United States. Called the Western States Acquirers Association, the new group plans to hold its first conference in November in San Francisco, and is in the …

In the wake of its groundbreaking announcement last week that it had signed up MBNA Corp. as the first U.S. bank issuer on its network, American Express Co. yesterday said the MBNA deal is non-exclusive and that it is actively pursuing such arrangements with “plans to form additional partnerships” in …

First Data Corp. officals vowed today they expect to fight hard to add to the debit business of Concord EFS Inc., the debit processor First Data is buying for $6.9 billion. In a meeting with securities analysts to present 2003 full-year and fourth-quarter results, First Data chairman and chief executive …

The Electronic Transactions Association announced today new initiatives intended to appeal to individual merchant-level sales agents. Traditionally a trade organization for larger ISOs and acquirers, the Washington, D.C.-based ETA says it will give merchant-level salespeople access to ETA products, services, and conferences at reduced rates. While association membership is open …