Pricing

To the dismay of retailers but the joy of the card networks and bank defendants, U.S. District Judge John Gleeson on Friday gave preliminary approval to the controversial settlement of credit card interchange litigation announced July 13. The National Retail Federation, the leading retail-industry trade group and an outspoken foe …

A 13-cent fee increase from Parkmobile USA Inc., a specialty payments processor for parking providers and municipalities, drew heavy fire last week from U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, chief sponsor of the Durbin Amendment in 2010’s Dodd-Frank Act that imposed price controls on most debit card transactions. The brouhaha is the …

The judge overseeing the mammoth litigation involving credit card interchange said on Wednesday the controversial proposed settlement appears to meet the requirements for preliminary approval. Judge John Gleeson, however, also said he would hear merchants’ objections to the settlement struck by lawyers for the merchant plaintiffs and the payment card …

In what amounts to a reminder about an unanticipated consequence of the Durbin Amendment debit card regulations, USA Technologies Inc. (USAT) reported Wednesday that it had extended its agreement with Visa Inc. that provides the vending-machine payment network operator with favorable pricing on small debit transactions. The news wasn’t a …

It’s time for bankers to stop looking at mobile technology merely as a cost cutter and start using it to make money, said speakers at a retail-banking technology conference on Tuesday. Banks that add a variety of new services to their mobile offerings ranging from in-store bar-code scanning to expedited …

In a play for the business of what an American Express Co. executive calls “the unhappily banked,” AmEx and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Monday introduced their Bluebird prepaid card for U.S. customers of the world’s largest retailer. The card not only expands the consumer markets that AmEx, normally associated with …

Merchant Customer Exchange, the planned mobile-payments network by and for retailers, is more than an interchange play controlled by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to an executive whose company is represented on the nascent network’s board of directors. Stephanie Swain, senior director of financial services at electronics retailer Best Buy Co. …

The deals PayPal Inc. and Discover Financial Services disclosed last week with processors Vantiv Inc. and Global Payments Inc. are just the start of PayPal’s efforts to win acceptance at physical merchants. PayPal is also starting to woo independent sales organizations to help push its mark into potentially millions of …

Almost universally derided by banks and payment card networks, the Durbin Amendment debit card interchange price controls that took effect a year ago Monday have received mixed reviews from merchant acquirers. But one big acquirer that made Durbin a key part of its sales and retention efforts early on, Heartland …

Merchant plaintiffs and the payment card network and bank defendants should return to the bargaining table and hammer out a new solution to the credit card interchange litigation for which they announced a proposed settlement July 13. That’s the conclusion of Aite Group LLC in releasing results of its recent …