News

May, 2013

• 6 May

  Officials Give Some Hints to Acquirers on How To Stay in Washington’s Good Graces

  Often regarded as the enemy, officials from the federal government gave some friendly advice to merchant acquirers last week about what regulators are concerned with regarding payments, including mobile payments, prepaid cards, and fraud control. The recommendations came during a government panel Thursday at the Electronic Transactions Association’s annual conference …
• 6 May

  With ‘Chunky’ Deals in the Works, Vantiv Has High Hopes for its Litle E-Commerce Unit

    Transaction volume at electronic-commerce processor Litle & Co. grew 39% in the first quarter, Litle’s new owner, Vantiv Inc., reported late Monday. Vantiv, a big merchant and card-issuer processor based near Cincinnati, said Litle contributed only one or two percentage points of Vantiv's 23% increase in merchant transactions from …
• 2 May

  Inspired by Chase Merchant Services, Other Banks Mull Their Own Potential Deals With Visa

    Visa Inc.’s decision to license a version of its VisaNet processing network to JPMorgan Chase & Co. generated controversy in merchant-acquiring circles when the two companies announced their deal in February, but now Visa says it is getting inquiries from other client financial institutions that may be interested in …
• 1 May

  MasterCard’s CEO Takes Issue with the ‘Wrong Noise’ About the Network’s Digital-Wallet Fee

    MasterCard Inc. chief executive Ajay Banga on Wednesday downplayed the company’s controversial digital-wallet fee and said critics had been generating the “wrong noise” about the pending fee. Banga’s comments came during the No. 2 payment card network’s first-quarter conference call with analysts, when Banga also said U.S. consumer spending …
• 1 May

  Nelms: PayPal Deal Helps Make Discover the ‘Alternative Network for Alternative Payments’

    With a major expansion of its arrangement with PayPal Inc. due later this year, Discover Financial Services is now “the alternative network for alternative payments in the United States,” Discover chief executive David W. Nelms told an audience of merchant acquirers on Wednesday. Hinting that more deals similar to …

April, 2013

• 30 April

  First Data Tells Merchant Acquirers That It Won’t Support PayPal Acceptance

    Discover Financial Services on Tuesday named six prominent merchant acquirers among 50 committed to helping the network bring acceptance of leading online payment system PayPal to more than 2 million physical merchant locations by year’s end. But a notable missing link is No. 1 merchant processor First Data Corp., …
• 29 April

  First Data Picks a Top Chase Executive As Its New CEO

    Leading payment processor First Data Corp. reached outside the company over the weekend to tap Frank Bisignano, a veteran operations executive with experience at some of the nation’s largest banks, as its new chief executive officer. Bisignano, most recently co-chief operating officer at JPMorgan Chase & Co., replaces Jonathan …
• 29 April

  Picture Clouded on Durbin’s Results for Retailers And Consumers, Study Says

    One full year after complete implementation of the controversial Durbin Amendment’s debit card regulations, the impact on both merchants and consumers—the law’s putative beneficiaries—remains mixed, according to a study released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. While Durbin drastically reduced interchange for the country’s largest banks while …
• 25 April

  Execs with Major Retailers Complain EMV Attacks Wrong Problem at Huge Expense

    n In the case of some merchants, a high rate of PIN acceptance is already controlling fraud, the merchants said. “Our actual fraud rate is so small it’s hardly worth mentioning,” said Gavin Waugh, vice president and assistant treasurer at Wendy’s International Inc. “[EMV] doesn’t move the needle that …
• 23 April

  Smaller Debit Issuers, Exempt from Durbin Caps, Still Feel Pricing Impact, Expert Says

    The provisions of the Durbin Amendment to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act are starting to hurt smaller issuers’ debit card income even though these financial institutions are explicitly exempted from the law’s cap on interchange rates, according to a debit expert. “This phenomenon is happening as we speak,” said Tony …