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The White House is scheduled to dress down credit card issuers this week. That and current and possible bills in Congress increase the chances of new regulations on merchant acquirers, according to a lobbyist for the Electronic Transactions Association trade group of independent sales organizations and other merchant processors. Congress …
Read More »PCI for Small Merchants Gives Rise to Headaches, Opportunities
Ask most acquirers and independent sales organizations what keeps them up at night, and at or near the top of the list is the job of getting their smaller merchants to comply with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI). The security requirement, whose detailed mandates even larger merchants find …
Read More »Terminal Rivals Cooperate on Plan for Card Data Security
In an unprecedented effort to thwart data breaches, the three leading vendors of payment card terminals on Wednesday put aside their normally fierce rivalries to announce creation of a non-profit industry group to implement common security standards and improve knowledge about security issues. “The self interest aligns with the public …
Read More »First Atlantic Denies IRS Allegations in Offshore Tax Investigation
First Atlantic Commerce this week issued a strongly worded statement distancing itself from an investigation launched by the U.S. Department of Justice of offshore transactions. First Data Corp. last week said it was reviewing documents Justice filed in federal court seeking information on First Data merchants that sell or provide …
Read More »First Data Reviews Request from Feds On Offshore Merchants
First Data Corp. is reviewing documents filed in federal court earlier this week by the U.S. Department of Justice seeking information on First Data merchants that sell or provide offshore services, including financial processing, a spokesperson said in a statement Thursday. The Justice Department on Wednesday asked the U.S. District …
Read More »It’s Not Perfect, But PCI Helps Secure Card Data, Study Finds
The recent massive data breaches at RBS WorldPay Inc. and Heartland Payment Systems Inc. ?two merchant acquirers deemed in compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard by qualified assessors?left many in the industry questioning the effectiveness of the PCI standard. But a newly released report from Verizon Business concludes …
Read More »Now in Pilot, Visa’s Consumer Alerts Set to Roll out Later This Year
Visa Inc. is taking steps to more actively recruit consumers in its fraud-fighting efforts, including the development of an early-warning system that notifies cardholders in real-time when their cards are being used. Visa's Transaction Alert system, currently in pilot at banks including U.S. Bank, PNC Corp., and Wells Fargo & …
Read More »Acquiring Gains at First Data Despite a Tough Merchant Environment
First Data Corp. on Wednesday reported merchant-services revenue of $1.1 billion, up 18%. Excluding debit-network fees and Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC, revenue growth was 1%. First Data in November terminated its joint venture with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to operate Chase Paymentech. First Data signed nearly 116,000 domestic merchant locations, …
Read More »To Cut Fraud Losses, Don’t Wait for Chargebacks, Apple Says
Online merchants shouldn't wait for chargebacks to indicate a problem with fraudulent orders. Instead, they should pay attention to other indicators, such as the volume of canceled orders, to anticipate whether a wave of chargebacks is about to hit. That's the argument Dave Moriarty, director of data mining at Apple …
Read More »Higher Fees Could be Rainmakers for the Bank Card Networks
More information is trickling out about new transaction fees planned by Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. While the main ones are slightly under 2 cents per affected transaction, when applied to the vast stream of bank card purchases they could produce more than $600 million in new revenues for the …
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