News

July, 2012

• 16 July

  Not All Merchants Are Happy with the $7-Billion-Plus Credit Card Settlement

  No sooner had the ink dried on a proposed settlement of a massive credit card suit than cracks began to appear in what had been an edifice of merchant solidarity. The NACS, a national trade group for convenience-store operators, on Friday said its board of directors had unanimously rejected the …
• 13 July

  PayPal Says It Will Process Payments for GE’s Electric-Vehicle Charging Stations

  PayPal Inc. announced on Thursday it will process payments when owners of electric vehicles charge up their cars at charging stations maintained by GE Industrial Solutions, a unit of General Electric Co. In what amounts to yet another venture into the physical point of sale for PayPal, the e-commerce processing …
• 13 July

  Durbin or No, First Data Figures Show Debit Continues To Flourish

  Worried about getting too far in debt and nearly oblivious to the ongoing debate in the banking and payments industries about the controversial Durbin Amendment, consumers in June continued to display their allegiance to debit cards, according to new figures from First Data Corp. The nation’s leading payment card processor …
• 13 July

  Merchants Wring More Than $7 Billion out of Networks, Banks in Credit Card Settlement

  The card networks, major U.S. banks, and U.S. merchants reached a $7-billion-plus settlement late on Friday, capping a seven-year battle over credit card interchange and network acceptance rules. If approved by the court, the settlement will be the largest such agreement ever in an antitrust case. Under the terms of …
• 11 July

  Brooklyn Court Could Be More Inclined to Rule Reform Than Interchange Cuts

  With a trial date looming in September, speculation is rising that a major antitrust case challenging credit card interchange will result in new rules handing merchants wider latitude in surcharging for transactions, routing payments, and steering customers to other cards or forms of payment. Settlement talks in the case, known …
• 10 July

  Heartland Goes To School for New Payment Opportunities

  School lunches often draw fire from students, who want tastier fare, and parents and nutritionists, who want healthier meals. But for merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc., food service in schools is proving to be a profitable new payments niche. Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland on Monday said it had acquired LunchByte …
• 9 July

  JetPay, EMS Acquired by New Company Founded by Payments Veteran Bipin Shah

  A new company run by electronic-payments veteran Bipin Shah announced on Monday it has agreed to buy two merchant processors and a payroll-processing company for a total of $179 million in cash and stock. The acquisitions are part of a strategy followed by Radnor, Pa.-based Universal Business Payment Solutions Acquisition …
• 9 July

  Mobile Payments Take a Big Jump in Popularity, Survey Finds

  The subject of vast amounts of hype, mobile payments are in fact becoming reality for many consumers. New findings from IDC Financial Insights show that 33.9% of consumers have made purchase on a mobile phone, up from only 19.3% in a similar survey last year. Mobile payments will further penetrate …
• 5 July

  App Usage Reaches a Solid Majority Among Handset Users As Wallet Apps Proliferate

  With much of the nascent mobile-payments business concentrated on consumer access via streamlined applications rather than browsers, news emerged this week that handset users are rapidly adopting apps. Indeed, usage of downloaded apps crossed the 50% mark in March and stood at 51.1% in May, according to figures released this …
• 5 July

  P2P Services Gain Popularity, But Most Providers Still Can’t Charge for Them

  Person-to-person payments continue to improve technologically and attract consumers, but providers still haven’t figured out how to make money from them, according to new findings from First Annapolis Consulting Inc. Linthicum, Md.-based First Annapolis in the second quarter tested a dozen P2P services from large banks and processors down to …