Transaction Processing

The PCI Security Standards Council is making changes to its qualified integrators and resellers certification program by reducing the fee to $100, making the certification an individual one, and shortening the training-course time, the council announced Wednesday. Launched in 2012, the QIR program’s focus has been on improving payments security for …

Some experts may dismiss cryptocurrency as impractical for retail payments, but at least one independent sales organization is doubling—make that tripling—down on crypto for merchant acceptance. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Aliant Payment Systems Inc. last week launched programs for Ether and Litecoin to go along with one for Bitcoin that it …

Payments provider First American Payment Systems said its payment-processing services are now available to merchants using the Apptizer Order Ahead Mobile App from developer Apptizer Inc. ATM deployer Payment Alliance International said it and multicurrency payment processor Planet Payment Inc. extended a multiyear contract for dynamic currency conversion at PAI’s …

Not many merchants are doing it yet, but surcharging credit card transactions will soon gain more acceptance as businesses do whatever they can to reduce their card-acceptance costs. That’s the expectation of merchant-processing executives who participated in a panel Tuesday at the Southeast Acquirers Association annual conference in Orlando, Fla. …

Independent sales organizations and acquirers looking for a payment gateway have another resource to use. Payments consultancy The Strawhecker Group recently released its Payment Gateway Directory, which catalogs 58 data points about 73 companies. The report also analyzed the performance of the gateways by assessing the account-boarding process, evaluating developer …

Transaction Network Services announced its Global Wireless Access service now supports 4G roaming in more than 60 nations for use with mobile point-of-sale terminals. Fitbit Inc., maker of wearable fitness devices, released the Fitbit Versa smart watch that includes a contactless-payments capability. Payments provider i2c Inc. announced plans to open …

More than anything else, customer demographics will drive mobile-commerce strategies for airlines, finds a study from CellPoint Mobile, a mobile-commerce vendor specializing in the travel industry. In the Miami-based company’s “Mobile Outlook 2018 Report” released last week, it found that, among airline payment professionals in the North America, 56% cited …

VeriFone Systems Inc. introduced its Carbon Mobile 5, a point-of-sale device that fits in the palm of the hand and can run payment, loyalty, and inventory-management applications on the Android operating system. Financial Transmission Network Inc. (FTNI) said Merchants Foodservice, which FTNI says is the 12th-largest U.S. food-service distributor, will …

In an effort to make its cards more financially attractive to merchants, American Express Co. plans to cut its worldwide discount rate by potentially up to three times the level it had previously predicted for 2018. AmEx, generally the costliest of the major card brands for merchants to accept, typically …

Cross-border payments provider Veem announced it now offers working capital to merchants through a deal with merchant-financier BlueVine. Payments provider Bluefin Payment Systems LLC said its services will be available to users of practice-management software from Rev360 that is designed for use in eye-care practices. Payments provider Century Business Solutions …